Sam Smith

I always enjoy reading the TripAdvisor London Forum because I'm fascinated to see what foreign tourists expect, what they ask about and what surprises them. I thought this post from someone from Texas was a really lovely and cheering comment about riding the tube late at night

A spiral staircase in a lovely concrete carpark. Out the top of the stair you can see the sky, Edinburgh Castle, and the Red Arrows.

Haha! It worked!

I scoped out the angle this morning and figured I’d be very lucky to pull it off, but it was surely worth a try, eh?

#Edinburgh #RedArrows #Photography

Motherfucking wind farms…

"The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged" - the Football Association, 5th December 1921

Lily Parr, the first women's football superstar and the Dick Kerr Ladies team

www.thefa.com/womens-girls...

Another cracker from Michael Spicer.

Fed Chair Powell appears to be doing an impersonation of Professor Proton from The Big Bang Theory 😆.

Convicted predators who rape and abuse children shouldn’t qualify for pardon consideration. A president who can’t immediately say “absolutely not” when I asked if he’s considering such a pardon should be hounded out of office.

Governance by inferiority complex (White House photo via Flickr) Story one: As he left the White House this morning on his way to the golf club he owns in Scotland — the ones he owns in Bedminster, N.J. or Sterling, Va. apparently no ...

Two little anecdotes this morning reinforce the extent to which a shared inferiority complex drives right-wing politics.

THIS

A handwritten envelope with a stamp of King Charles. The address reads "To the Astronomer Royal, Edinburgh, Scotland". In front of some books.

Well #RoyalMail have outdone themselves: look what arrived in the mail! Turns out you can send me a letter with only "The Astronomer Royal, Edinburgh, Scotland" on the address!

🙏 to 95yo Mr Pritchard: a very lovely letter about telescopes 🔭 and his childhood ambitions to discover a new star 🥰.

Rather enjoyed this bit, taking down our former Ambassador to Copenhagen: a classic of the “right wingers quoting Orwell without actually bothering to read him” genre.

My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!

I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation. Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror... I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes. A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her. Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard. ... Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

Heartbroken 💔

“When we introduce the idea of person, we introduce the notion of mystery. People are not problems to be solved. They're a mystery to inspire wonder."

John O'Brien 26/06/25
Rest in power

mailchi.mp/c30c3a3ee481...

Stunning.

The problem with this ‘let’s weaken our commitment to the ECHR so as to fend off Farage’ plan is that when it doesn’t work, we end up with Farage *and* a weakened commitment to the ECHR at exactly the moment we need the ECHR the most.

Our military deserves better than this empty charade. Yikes. The tank squeaking over silence is incredible.

Even before I heard the devastating, horrific news of political assassination in Minnesota, I woke up this morning thinking about Emily Dickinson's great poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers -"

Lots of people know this beautiful little poem, but fewer, I think(?) realize when it was written. /1

We need more of this kinda straight talking 👇👏.

DALLAS… 😆 💪🏽

www.instagram.com/reel/DKvtTtW...

YouTube video by CNN 'Weakness masquerading as strength': Hear Newsom's blistering speech on Trump as LA protests persist

This is a superb speech by @governor.ca.gov just now.

Clear. Strong. Simple. Direct. Angry—in a way that appeals to the best in people, not the worst. Seven plus minutes of the most effective rhetoric in response to Trump.

This is how you want a leader to talk.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=linJ...

A quote attributed to Rachel Cackett, CEO of CCPS: “As a member of the new NCS Interim Advisory Board I have to hope that, with our partners, we can drive the fundamental changes to social care needed now outside of a legislative process that has taken three years.” This text is on a white background, alongside the CCPS logo, and a graphic of a set of interlocking cogs.

Care Reform Bill’s conclusion “far from its original aspiration”

Ahead of today’s Stage 3 debate at Holyrood we’ve published a briefing on the key amendments.

Read our news story & briefing: www.ccpscotland.org/ccps-news/so...

@r-cackett.bsky.social @thirdforcenews.bsky.social @healthandcare.scot

🧵Spotted in While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand:

A woman (60s?) is sitting in a cafe, snuggling a tiny human on her lap. They're reading a story book and she's doing some VERY impressive animal sounds while Tiny Human looks on captivated. Turning each page together. (1)

Thoughts and prayers to America's Gestapo, cowering in fear in the face of such violent [checks notes] . . . ur, dancing in the streets.

#MarshaMath

Super organisation doing great work. Crackin' opportunities for the right people 👇👏😎

A wise man quoting a wise man. @judgeluttig.bsky.social is the man for this time.

We would be wise to read his words, reflect on our reality, and ready ourselves for action.

🤷🏼‍♂️

vital point lacking, usual: by any intelligent standard, care work is not 'low skilled'