Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"The House of Commons reconvenes on Tuesday to elect the speaker, after which MPs, old and new, will be officially sworn in, a process that can take several days."
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jul/06/labour-starmer-rig...
"Each of these pre-eminent technologies shaped the societies that they enveloped. Print shaped the world for four and a half centuries, followed by broadcast, which ruled for 50 years or so. None of this would have surprised a biologist, who would see human culture as something that grows in an enveloping nutrient. Change the nutrient and you change the culture that grows in it."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/29/closing-th...
"To make things worse, we also invented a technology that enables every Tom, Dick and mad Harry to publish whatever they like on opaque global platforms, which are incentivised to propagate the wildest nonsense. And to this we have now added powerful tools (called AI) that automate the manufacture of misinformation on an epic scale. If you were a malign superpower that wanted to screw up the democratic world, you’d be hard put to do better than this."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9gOQgfPW4Y
"Starmer’s first session answering prime minister’s questions, probably with Rishi Sunak putting the questions as leader of the opposition, has been pencilled in for 24 July, the week after the state opening of parliament on 17 July."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/07/commons-334-roo...
7 Comments
'Time for a few Zeds'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Still, I suppose there are a lot of unemployed ex-Tory MPs, so maybe they might like to retrain for the construction industry. I can just see Liz Truss as a plasterer. Jacob Rees-Mogg as a chippy."
Cottingham Day...
"The curfew announcement comes as Naidoc week celebrations kick off in the town of about 25,000, attracting about 5,000 visitors from across the NT, Western Australia and South Australia."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/08/less-is-more-ke...
lol
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8807nkvy2lo
"It is the second time a precious item has been taken from the caverns, after the fossilised tooth of an extinct shark was stolen last year."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUL_yawY6Ks
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/nov/08/kids-these...
A 'Search for Spook'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"A week on Saturday, the Conservatives will elect their new leader. Rishi Sunak, a symbol of what went before, will finally exit the stage and his successor will enter it - and so become one of the central characters of the years ahead. And on Wednesday, the highly anticipated and long talked about Budget will be published."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/25/astronaut-hospitalized-n...
"He was at his most animated when I put it to him that his party seemed to be struggling to adjust to the realities of government."
https://ynygrowthhub.com/
"Before we know it, though, the long schlep home will begin – via Hawaii, California and Winnipeg - and Westminster’s tilt towards the Budget will become total."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE
"If they are out of work, learners are guaranteed a job interview with an employer after completing a Skills Bootcamp."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c774xjz3m7do
""And for that to be stolen… it’s absolutely terrible.""
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF1qfLMczNo
"Sandwiched between the soil and permafrost lie unusual metre-thick ponds of very salty water known as cryopegs, which are underlain by crystalised methane-water solids, kept stable by the high pressure and low temperature."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/23/terrawatch-mystery-of-si...
"Quantum computers promise to solve problems too hard for even the most powerful supercomputers - like those requiring vast numbers of parallel computations like complex weather simulations, the binding of drugs to their targets, or the vagaries of financial markets."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/25/state-backed-loans-firms-i...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbuFLUJ89Kw
"So he got out and said to Sir George 'I was hired to drive a coach not to fly your contraptions', and handed in his notice."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7481gev0k3o
'Remember, she did everything backwards and in heels.'
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/oct/24/thanks-to-this-unsung-magi...
Little Ears.
'Organic Frameworks'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
Never Count your Chickens...
"Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/11/27/angela-rayner-meets-pope...
"Following his Budget, the head of McVitie’s has said that it has been harder to understand what the case for investment in the UK is."
Broomsticks.
"We define political consciousness as a way of seeing, caring about and acting in the world. It is guided by a commitment to human rights and justice and an understanding of power and inequity in social, political and economic systems, relations and values."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/san-francisco-navy-lab-h...
The Ironic.
"“Speak not of the wild animal, lest he should appear,” because you're simply too afraid of seeing one. The name bear is a euphemism; it's a good word substituted for a bad one. It's probably the oldest known euphemism in world ."
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/30/how-is-glitter-made...
Sleep Tight.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/29/covalent-organic-fra...
Hmmm...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjbQEEdVcDI
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qdj80py3no
lol
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/29/houseplant-of-the-w...
Straight Face.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/24759156.nandos...
The Silence.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/understanding-plants/how-plants-breathe
"“There’s one thing for sure, whatever political position I hold, I will always fight for the coast and moors and the opportunities of the renewable sector.”"
Best not mention Harry Potter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52chF7DWJcY
""I always bring some different elements - improvisation, the piano, the flute, the jazz harmonisation - so that the music is going through another process of creolisation."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7vwlg8rmo
'Climate Moderation'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"The root of the problems with the OSA is that it was framed and enacted by legislators who think that the “internet” consists only of the platforms of a small number of huge tech corporations. So they passed a statute that supposedly would deal with these corporate miscreants – without imagining what the unintended consequences would be on the actual internet of people using the technology for genuinely social purposes. And in doing so they have inadvertently raised the question famously posed by Alexander Pope in 1735 in his letter to Dr Arbuthnot: “Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?”"
https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/24848641.york-north-yorkshire-can-tackl...
“We’ve already helped about 30 farmers build resilience and improve biodiversity so they can be much more environmentally-friendly."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDMCwSP5nf0
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/12/note-to-no-10-one-...
'Reserve Designs'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"The Royal Mint had announced that the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Coming Up for Air is to be honoured on a new £2 coin to coincide with the 75th anniversary of his death."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99y0mp7p44o
"All these projects highlight one vivid point: that places not only need their own journalism, but can provide the audiences to support it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fregObNcHC8
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/12/tech-barons-bbc-pl...
Never, Mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyFAnA9oPRE
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jan/11/why-we-cant-get-eno...
'Welcome, Approaches'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"As if he knows he can’t help making even the most interesting subjects just a wee bit dull. What should be engaging too frequently dies on the tongue. It’s his cross to bear. Integrity he can do with ease. Enthusiasm takes a little longer."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/13/ai-keir-starmer-sketch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQegMnHIJ4
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/13/space-junk-rockets...
"Circular solutions include reuse, repair, recycling, eco-design, sustainable supply and responsible consumption."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zx8t9ty
Wheel Barrows.
lol
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7zg9xkyl3o
'A Torino Scale'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Based on measurements gathered so far, the asteroid has a 1.3% chance of smashing into Earth on 22 December 2032, or put another way, a nearly 99% probability of barrelling past without incident.
“Most likely this one will pass by harmlessly,” said Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. “It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”"
https://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/24898774.hull-road-service-station-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uRN-a2xsO4
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/30/asteroid-spotted-chance-...
Ohm.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgly62z6py8o