Reposted by Michael
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
January 23, 2026 at 3:22 PM
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Reposted by Michael
Yes it could be argued that keeping up with world events is important but alternatively can I interest you in hugging an ancient mossy boulder that looks like a face and quietly listening while it tells you stories from centuries cloaked in mist.
January 23, 2026 at 10:56 AM
Yes it could be argued that keeping up with world events is important but alternatively can I interest you in hugging an ancient mossy boulder that looks like a face and quietly listening while it tells you stories from centuries cloaked in mist.
Reposted by Michael
Sky News: Danish PM Mette Freideriksen’s note in the visitors book when she visited UK today
January 23, 2026 at 4:59 AM
Sky News: Danish PM Mette Freideriksen’s note in the visitors book when she visited UK today
Reposted by Michael
Somehow Al Gore heckling a current US Commerce Secretary at Davos is absolutely and completely wild and also only about the 1000th most bonkers thing that has happened so far in 2026, on this, the 21st day of January
“One of the hecklers was Al Gore, the former US vice-president, according to two executives present.”
Into my veins www.ft.com/content/e2ae...
January 21, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Somehow Al Gore heckling a current US Commerce Secretary at Davos is absolutely and completely wild and also only about the 1000th most bonkers thing that has happened so far in 2026, on this, the 21st day of January
Reposted by Michael
So Disney deleted their post on Threads asking users to post Disney quotes that show how their feeling - I suspect this is because it didn't quite go as they expected but the internet is forever so, for your delectation and delight...
January 20, 2026 at 5:01 PM
So Disney deleted their post on Threads asking users to post Disney quotes that show how their feeling - I suspect this is because it didn't quite go as they expected but the internet is forever so, for your delectation and delight...
Reposted by Michael
the female astronaut that we'ee sending to the moon had to warn her husband that he won't just be able to call her to ask where something is in the house 💀💀💀💀
January 19, 2026 at 2:36 PM
the female astronaut that we'ee sending to the moon had to warn her husband that he won't just be able to call her to ask where something is in the house 💀💀💀💀
Reposted by Michael
Some anecdotes must always be reposted.
John Boorman is 93.
This anecdote about him & Lee Marvin has quite the punchline.
This anecdote about him & Lee Marvin has quite the punchline.
January 18, 2026 at 12:26 PM
Some anecdotes must always be reposted.
Reposted by Michael
Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant making Notorious, 1946
December 15, 2024 at 9:35 PM
Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant making Notorious, 1946
Reposted by Michael
I was just listening to This Train by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and thought I'd look up what she's actually singing when it sounds like she's singing "This train don't pull no wankers". The answer surprised me.
January 17, 2026 at 2:32 PM
I was just listening to This Train by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and thought I'd look up what she's actually singing when it sounds like she's singing "This train don't pull no wankers". The answer surprised me.
Reposted by Michael
Reposted by Michael
BAGGER: (spilling my groceries on the floor) Oh God. I'm so sorry. This isn't what I'm supposed to do.
ME: How are you supposed to do it?
MANAGER: She means she was gonna be a fox. In the woods and shit. But something happened and she got stuck.
BAGGER: (crying) Got so stuck.
ME: How are you supposed to do it?
MANAGER: She means she was gonna be a fox. In the woods and shit. But something happened and she got stuck.
BAGGER: (crying) Got so stuck.
January 17, 2026 at 10:44 AM
BAGGER: (spilling my groceries on the floor) Oh God. I'm so sorry. This isn't what I'm supposed to do.
ME: How are you supposed to do it?
MANAGER: She means she was gonna be a fox. In the woods and shit. But something happened and she got stuck.
BAGGER: (crying) Got so stuck.
ME: How are you supposed to do it?
MANAGER: She means she was gonna be a fox. In the woods and shit. But something happened and she got stuck.
BAGGER: (crying) Got so stuck.
Reposted by Michael
Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking?
Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.
1/
Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.
1/
January 17, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking?
Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.
1/
Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.
1/
Reposted by Michael
British education in a nutshell
January 17, 2026 at 10:33 AM
British education in a nutshell
Reposted by Michael
1st time reading Stick Man: What a lovely story. We’ll have it again tomorrow?
10th time reading Stick Man: Oh look, a nativity card behind Stick Man.
50th time reading Stick Man: so Jesus exists in the Stick Man universe?
100th time reading Stick Man: iS sTiCk mAN A fRaGment oF tHe tRUe cROsS?
10th time reading Stick Man: Oh look, a nativity card behind Stick Man.
50th time reading Stick Man: so Jesus exists in the Stick Man universe?
100th time reading Stick Man: iS sTiCk mAN A fRaGment oF tHe tRUe cROsS?
January 17, 2026 at 8:44 AM
1st time reading Stick Man: What a lovely story. We’ll have it again tomorrow?
10th time reading Stick Man: Oh look, a nativity card behind Stick Man.
50th time reading Stick Man: so Jesus exists in the Stick Man universe?
100th time reading Stick Man: iS sTiCk mAN A fRaGment oF tHe tRUe cROsS?
10th time reading Stick Man: Oh look, a nativity card behind Stick Man.
50th time reading Stick Man: so Jesus exists in the Stick Man universe?
100th time reading Stick Man: iS sTiCk mAN A fRaGment oF tHe tRUe cROsS?
Reposted by Michael
A small number of senior barristers are enabling large-scale tax fraud.
They issue opinions saying tax schemes will work. They know they won't.
The point of the opinion isn't to be right. It's to protect the shadowy individuals running the schemes from prosecution.
🧵
They issue opinions saying tax schemes will work. They know they won't.
The point of the opinion isn't to be right. It's to protect the shadowy individuals running the schemes from prosecution.
🧵
January 16, 2026 at 9:51 AM
A small number of senior barristers are enabling large-scale tax fraud.
They issue opinions saying tax schemes will work. They know they won't.
The point of the opinion isn't to be right. It's to protect the shadowy individuals running the schemes from prosecution.
🧵
They issue opinions saying tax schemes will work. They know they won't.
The point of the opinion isn't to be right. It's to protect the shadowy individuals running the schemes from prosecution.
🧵
Reposted by Michael
Common Sense, published 250 years ago today.
January 10, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Common Sense, published 250 years ago today.
Reposted by Michael
Sometimes when I’m feeling a little doomer I think about the folks who sat on top of Canterbury cathedral during the blitz and literally picked up incendiary devices and threw them to the ground to be extinguished
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/firewatchers
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/firewatchers
Firewatchers – Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk
January 15, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Sometimes when I’m feeling a little doomer I think about the folks who sat on top of Canterbury cathedral during the blitz and literally picked up incendiary devices and threw them to the ground to be extinguished
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/firewatchers
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/firewatchers
Reposted by Michael
This seems like a maliciously put headline to make people feel a certain way.
Wikipedia is not partaking in generative AI. They are making AI companies and scrappers having to pay for training their modules off wikipedia texts. And having an AI (not that ai) tasked with updating dead links.
Wikipedia is not partaking in generative AI. They are making AI companies and scrappers having to pay for training their modules off wikipedia texts. And having an AI (not that ai) tasked with updating dead links.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written by volunteers, is embracing artificial intelligence to mark its 25th anniversary.
Wikipedia unveils new AI licensing deals as it marks 25th birthday
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written by volunteers, is embracing artificial intelligence to mark its 25th anniversary.
bit.ly
January 15, 2026 at 7:08 PM
This seems like a maliciously put headline to make people feel a certain way.
Wikipedia is not partaking in generative AI. They are making AI companies and scrappers having to pay for training their modules off wikipedia texts. And having an AI (not that ai) tasked with updating dead links.
Wikipedia is not partaking in generative AI. They are making AI companies and scrappers having to pay for training their modules off wikipedia texts. And having an AI (not that ai) tasked with updating dead links.
Reposted by Michael
I was thinking about that 1980s James Bond movie where everybody's trying to get their hands on a Fabergé egg for some reason
And then I realized:
It's an Egg McGuffin.
And then I realized:
It's an Egg McGuffin.
January 15, 2026 at 6:40 PM
I was thinking about that 1980s James Bond movie where everybody's trying to get their hands on a Fabergé egg for some reason
And then I realized:
It's an Egg McGuffin.
And then I realized:
It's an Egg McGuffin.
Reposted by Michael
the European mission to Greenland was fourth in the BBC news running order this morning, which feels a bit like doing a light "and finally..." item about the archduke's motorcade taking a wrong turn in Sarajevo
January 15, 2026 at 10:01 AM
the European mission to Greenland was fourth in the BBC news running order this morning, which feels a bit like doing a light "and finally..." item about the archduke's motorcade taking a wrong turn in Sarajevo
Reposted by Michael
Just astonishing good news. We are on the way to end Multiple Sclerosis.
University research delivers. Always has. Now a cabal in the White House is shattering it.
University research delivers. Always has. Now a cabal in the White House is shattering it.
Epstein-Barr Virus #EBV was linked to #MultipleSclerosis - now a plausible cause has been found, misidentification by longterm memory T-cells that pick on the wrong protein, ANO2, instead of the EBV-antigen. Massive inflection towards the elimination of MS!!!
🧪🧠Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧪🧠Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Anoctamin-2-specific T cells link Epstein-Barr virus to multiple sclerosis
Researchers identified anoctamin-2 (ANO2) as a frequent autoimmune target in multiple
sclerosis, with T cell responses against ANO2 occurring in over half of patients.
These ANO2-specific T cells shar...
www.cell.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:33 AM
Just astonishing good news. We are on the way to end Multiple Sclerosis.
University research delivers. Always has. Now a cabal in the White House is shattering it.
University research delivers. Always has. Now a cabal in the White House is shattering it.
Reposted by Michael
Thought I’d do a mega hread on NPR, partly because I’ve seen some London based commentary that doesn’t really get the bigger picture quite right imho
January 15, 2026 at 7:34 AM
Thought I’d do a mega hread on NPR, partly because I’ve seen some London based commentary that doesn’t really get the bigger picture quite right imho
Reposted by Michael
If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this:
America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.
What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.
What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
January 12, 2026 at 9:36 PM
If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this:
America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.
What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.
What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
Reposted by Michael
❤️🔥Tory sources confirm that Nadhim Zahawi made approaches to senior members of Kemi Badenoch's team about getting a peerage just weeks before defecting to Reform UK - but was turned down.
January 12, 2026 at 2:35 PM
❤️🔥Tory sources confirm that Nadhim Zahawi made approaches to senior members of Kemi Badenoch's team about getting a peerage just weeks before defecting to Reform UK - but was turned down.
Reposted by Michael
I don't think it's a coincidence that all of this (worldwide) is happening when most of the people who lived through WWII have just died. We need to do a better job of keeping their memories and ideals alive.
January 10, 2026 at 10:29 PM
I don't think it's a coincidence that all of this (worldwide) is happening when most of the people who lived through WWII have just died. We need to do a better job of keeping their memories and ideals alive.