Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex

This machine kills people.

I was recently asked if we should replace the IPCC with something less flawed. My answer is that nothing else could inspire top scholars worldwide to volunteer years of their lives to produce a definitive source on the state of our climate, impacts, and solutions. We have to fund the IPCC.

Amazing how many Labour MPs do not understand this quite basic point.

Behold: The US Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report on challenges to security in space, including an NEI image of China’s spaceplane from Maxar, taken in 2024.

I dug into this and it's not Generative AI. It's plug-in tools built into DaVinci Resolve to do artificial depth of field and parallaxing on images. This is stuff docs have been doing for decades and has since been more simplified with pre-built tools.

Admidst their internal party politics, Labour have done nothing to redress how Cameron stuffed the BBC full of right-wing political bias. They have done nothing to effect proper #MediaReform. They have not instigated #Leveson2. Shocking dereliction of duty.

Talking next week on Speculative Zoology and the legacy of Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs, which I see as an emissary of the dinosaur renaissance and a subversive effort to bring avant garde dinosaurs and pterosaurs to the masses.

Nice shiny example of how capital continues to hand-wave climate change as though it's a minor, trifling inconvenience.

Look, I know all the reasons we got here, but we really need to start seriously thinking about what we do in a world where The Markets punish whole countries for voting for decency, compassion, and fairness. We must stop pretending the capitalist machine is an objective, value neutral force.

Listening to a report about Google chopping down a quarter of a million trees in Finland to build a data centre while washing out yoghurt pots for the recycling

Planning for 3°C doesn't make it survivable - but it makes it seem so As Ben Shread-Hewitt and I explain in this recent article...

I think it doesn't reflect well on the BBC that one its leading presenters is allowed to write an 'analysis' for a highly partisan newspaper which includes lines like "Racial minorities, worshipped by white Democrats" www.dailymail.com/news/article...

I think we underestimate the appeal of antigambling politics because every problem gambler is surrounded by 3-10 people who are absolutely sick of their shit.

Sat 31 October. Salford. "Oh, Whistle...", "The Ash Tree", "Lost Hearts" & "A Warning to the Curious" by M R James. a fresh batch of tickets has been released for this Saturday's bonanza at The Lowry in Salford. www.thelowry.com/whats-on/a-w...

More British people are "very concerned" about climate change after a summer of extreme weather, up from 34% to 38%. The total share concerned about climate is 79%, but that's still lower than the 85% seen just before the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow five years ago.

Apparently it’s black cat appreciation day, so can we all just pause to appreciate about 80% of her majesty here?

Too many gherkins could certainly add an extra challenge to REMAINING INDOORS...

next Nobel Peace Prize winner discovered

Bluesky has fifteen kinds of users.

Still tickets available for a drive-in screening of Ghosts … AT BUTTON HOUSE westhorsleyplace.org/whats-on/dri...

It's quite hard to avoid Springer. They publish quite a lot of good stuff. Or, I should say, "published"

Slow on the uptake, I know, but I just realised that this "Amol Rajan Connection" thing must be one of those meme jokes that everyone pretends to believe in just to troll newbies. Like "drop bears" or "Bonekickers".

‘My dream is for us all to live in a dystopian nightmare where technology never stops interfering with you for even a second of the day.’

timeline cleanse: franky watches the garbage truck pick up the trash this morning

The definitive Marple. Absolutely nailed it. Treat yourself.

damn it now Walter Koenig is gone. Loved him first in Star Trek then all over again in Babylon 5. Fucking Death wiill you please get someone that NEEDS getting thank you.

Happy publication day to #DoctorWho And The Key To Time (and thanks to @suttonwho.bsky.social for making the impossible happen)

Wow. This looks to be actually true: moneypantry.com/get-paid-to-... You think there can't be any more ways that America can make itself more of a capitalist hellhole, but it's everything.

“I can’t see a makers mark, shall we have a look inside?”

Sobs in I have a god kid in europe and readers I post packages to in ireland. And it's already currently almost impossible to post things to Ireland/europe without weird charges and returns. Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving.

You might not like it, but the BBC has to remain impartial. It can't allow for messages that could be interpreted as political even if it's one as seemingly trivial as a tiny visual signifier pinned to your lapel. Save this post, because it's going to age REALLY well over the next couple of weeks.

MR James vibes...

This week someone brought in the cursed summoning whistle from Jonathan Miller’s Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You. This has been an incredible run for the series being brought powerful Fortean artefacts. Expecting the VHS from Ringu next week, and the Hexham Heads.

Asking for a few friends: does a 'distinctly British' approach to AI include paying for the use of our work? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

A day late, but this is one of the first images taken of Earth from space. Ever. It was acquired from an altitude of 105 km (five times higher than the previous record) eighty years ago, on 24 October 1946, with a 35 mm camera mounted on a V-2 rocket launched from the White Sands Missile Range.

I think the problem here can be summed up as: Same question but for 15 years ago? (I've got mRNA vaccines, and...?)

swanboy.com/comic/sextap...

One of my favourite genres is lads on the bus who are too manly to share a double seat so sit on opposite sides of the aisle and then the bus fills up and they have some rando sat next to them and can’t chat shit to each other anymore and instead look glumly at their phones.

Just think: If Amazon had just told 14 million people they were out of the running for Bond every day since the takeover, we'd have narrowed it down by now.

#DoctorWho #TargetBookClub checklist for tomorrow. Doors 9.30, kick off at 10 (but you're welcome to sneak into the cafe a little early) The Abbey Centre - turn right from Victoria Station, turn right at Westminster Abbey maps.app.goo.gl/GH15kmZDAmi9...