Who the fuck, upon being entrusted with a Fabergé egg to take home from an exhibition, thinks “I’ll just stick it in my handbag while I have a cheeky pinot down the pub”? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6098jngryo I would love to know how little money he got when he fenced it.

It’s not there during the day! At a guess, it’s a big tractor, but why it’s there and stationary for several hours each evening is a mystery.

This whatever it is has been parked in that field puffing smoke at about this time every evening this week, but not during the daytime. Starting to wonder if Howl is visiting on his holidays….

No, my landline ones. At least they all change when I do one of them.

I was looking for, and failed to find, something else entirely, but may I present: me, aged around three, after a long day in the garden.

The phones always catch me out, for some reason I expect something so techy to DIY it.

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/jeremy-clarkson-iran-probably-should-have-made-me-supreme-leader-3xjz93bnh Part of the problem, I think, is that in the West, where religion is no longer a big deal, we cannot get our head round the idea you’d kill a neighbour because his God’s a bit different to yours. We used to do that sort of thing in the olden times but nowadays, it’s un-understandable. So trying to get your head round all the problems and divisions over there is like trying to get your head round what a lettuce thinks about Angela Rayner. It’s impossible. Do you know why so few Arab states support Palestine? Or why there’s such an issue with the Jews? Or why the Sunni and the Shia don’t get on? It’s got something to do with cleaning your shoes but after that, I’m hazy. All we do know is that people in the Middle East have been at each other’s throats since the 7th century. They’re like potassium and chlorine. And you’re not going to make those two bond by firing a Hellfire missile at them. https://archive.ph/e3UlY

https://spectator.com/article/its-easy-to-blame-big-tech-for-the-results-of-parental-neglect/ If a child found Mr. Kipling cakes particularly addictive and began overindulging to the point of becoming overweight or unwell, would we be right to sue the baker? Or would it make more sense to ask whether the parent had enabled the behaviour by leaving the packets within easy reach, refusing to set limits or using them as a convenient babysitter? A Los Angeles jury has just delivered a landmark verdict against Meta and Google, finding both companies negligent for designing addictive platforms that harmed the mental health of a young user, known as Kaley. The £4.5 million awarded in damages, with Meta shouldering the lion’s share, has been hailed as social media’s ‘Big Tobacco moment’. Tech firms, it’s argued, acted recklessly in knowingly hooking children with infinite scrolls, auto-play and algorithmic dopamine hits, and so they are therefore fully responsible for the depression and anxiety that ensued. It is a seductive narrative. It’s also a comforting one, because it shifts responsibility away from the place it is most uncomfortable and most necessary to look at: the home. (Archive still down, sorry.)

The issue isn’t proving that you aren’t a bot, it’s uploading your ID to either Reddit or some random third party, security levels unknowable, and then having your posts linked to your ID if the police decide to take offence at something you post.

https://spectator.com/article/the-case-for-cloning-the-queens-corgis/ Think of cloning the corgis as a trial balloon for something infinitely thrilling. After all, we have come to accept as a matter of course that the descent of the crown through the generations is accompanied by a slight but perceptible deterioration of the genetic stock. Her Majesty, to pick just a single example, had a splendid head of hair right to the end of her long life. The King is pretty bald. The Prince of Wales is even balder. Wouldn’t we all, in our secret hearts, and respect his Majesty though we do, prefer it had we been able to install an exact clone of the late Queen on the throne in his place? The technology wasn’t there at the time, and it isn’t there yet. But one day, it seems likely, it will be. Think how grateful Prince George and his descendants will be to be let off the prospect of doing that thankless job, while Queen Elizabeth III is followed by Queen Elizabeth IV and Queen Elizabeth V and so on. Extra money could be made, to relieve pressure on the public finances, by selling spare clones of Her Majesty to other countries in need of a monarch of proven quality. https://archive.ph/K5oKm