Went to the GP because of severe depression and was told that finding God would really help and I should consider going to my local church. She also gave me a bookmark promoting her Christian self help book. Having a hard time gauging how affronted I am.
You’d think in this era of “MPs face increasing danger” there would be more outrage at newly elected Green MP Hannah Spencer being assaulted by transphobes but it’s nowhere to be seen on BBC News app even if you search her name
Found this peculiar little plant growing on a wall on a dull damp day.
Common whitlowgrass
#nature #wildflowers #photography
A Roman marble sculpture of four puppies, all curled up asleep together. Unearthed from the ruins of the House of the Faun in Pompeii, 1st century BCE, now housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy
🙄 Craven capitulation!
Absurd that non-believers are denied rights accorded to the credulous (or hypocritical), isn't it?
Will Greenwood was on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, with a philosophical reflection on England’s performance. The response: “We should sign you up for Thought for the Day”. And yet - that wouldn’t happen, would it, Radio 4 - because you reserve that spot exclusively for religious voices.
Reminiscent of school assemblies (though my recollections are more than 45 years out of date). Adherents of other faiths may be excused, but non-believers are expected to sing along (presumably in the hope that they will thereby lose their critical faculties).
Firecrest, today at Longleat Forest
When I bought an old book yesterday I learnt a new word yesterday - 'grangerised'. A note inside from the bookseller said it had 'grangerised' illustrations. I thought at first it must be some kind of photogravure technique, perhaps, but no. #book #history
On International Women's Day, let’s celebrate the bravery of those who have changed the world through protest.
Let’s also remember the catastrophic price that women pay in war — and vow to build a more peaceful world for all.
Antwerp Central Station
A "Railway Cathedral" indeed! Welcome to Antwerp Central Station, considered one of the most beautiful train stations in the world.
An investigation by the Guardian found that UK museums hold more than 263,000 items of human remains from around the world, including whole skeletons, preserved bodies, such as Egyptian mummies, skulls, bones, skin, teeth, nails, scalps and hair.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Recreational reading is not a competitive sport. You're not going to get any "points" for having read the most books in a year. Read for pleasure and read at a pace that gives you pleasure.
Lord Paul Boateng described UK museums and universities as “imperial charnel houses where the bones of Indigenous peoples torn from Britain’s empire in the past, with little or no regard to the spiritual sensibilities of its people…[it] beggars belief.”
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Cover of Gisele Pelicot's book A Hymn to Life
On #IWD2026, it feels fitting to sing the praises of this extraordinary book, read beautifully by Emma Thompson.
If you’ve yet to read it, please do. Gisèle Pelicot’s strength, courage & basic human decency ring out from its pages - as does the grotesque misogyny of her courtroom experience...
Close photograph of a bright green liverwort bryophyte, Crescent-cup Liverwort (Lunularia cruciata), growing in a small patch on damp bare soil beside a woodland path. The plant forms flat rounded plates called a thallus rather than stems and leaves. Several of these plates overlap on the soil surface. On top of it sit distinctive crescent-shaped cups (gemma cups) with raised rims. Inside the cups are clusters of tiny green discs called gemmae, these are small clones of the parent plant. When rain falls into the cups it splashes the gemmae out onto nearby soil where they grow into new plants. The thallus surface appears smooth and slightly glossy, with a faint speckled pattern from tiny air pores. The liverwort grows among small moss shoots and damp soil particles on the shaded woodland floor.
Crescent-cup Liverwort (Lunularia cruciata) was vibrant in the woods yesterday.
The crescent cups with their raised rims hold tiny plant clones called gemmae. Rain splashes them onto the soil where they grow into new plants.
tinyurl.com/mr3f8e93
#bryophyte #liverwort
Screenshot of BBC headline "Failed asylum seeker families to be offered up to £40k to leave UK" - 5 March 2026
Screenshot of the Guardian headline "BNP would offer non-white Britons £50,000 to leave UK, says Nick Griffin" - 2010
"Families of failed asylum seekers will be offered up to £40,000 to leave the UK under a trial scheme announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood"
Sounds familiar
"BNP would offer non-white Britons £50,000 to leave UK, says Nick Griffin" - 2010
“The historic function of fascism is to smash the working class, destroy its organizations, and stifle political liberties when the capitalists find themselves unable to govern and dominate with the help of democratic machinery.”
– Leon Trotsky, ‘Fascism, what it is and how to fight it’
We know folk helping with immediate mutual aid for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It’s a really dire and scary situation, massively appreciate any donations.
us22.campaign-archive.com?u=68b1477765...
paypal.me/lanabarake
A tiny circular yellow-green plant growing out of a grey rocky medium. The plant has a dotted colouration, and an oval hole in the middle through which a new pair of leaves is visible.
A tiny circular yellow-green plant growing out of a grey rocky medium. The plant has a dotted colouration, and an oval hole in the middle through which a new pair of leaves is visible.
Sown two years ago on the 8th March 2024, Lithops lesliei f. albinica is now 10 mm across and forming a new pair of leaves. #Lithops
Top tip: if you're in the market for a new vacuum cleaner, don't get a Dyson — get a Shark instead. The build quality is better, they're significantly less expensive, and best of all, you're not putting any money in James Dyson's pocket.
You're right about Dyson (the man and the machine). The build quality is shocking (nasty brittle components), and all too soon the device only sucks in the pejorative sense. Went for a Numatic - robust and reliable.
Lovely shot!
Keep meaning to climb Yewbarrow some day, but it's not easy to reach via public transport 🙄.
To Wasdale
The man is in dire need of a heroic dose of mushrooms in order to restore contact with reality. However, he is exceedingly unlikely to do anything heroic.
"We saw that change in Gorton and Denton – and that result unlocked a new level of confidence for potential Green voters that they can truly vote for what they want and get it."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
It's an unfamiliar scenario - having something to vote *for* rather than against. Bucking the rule that we're only permitted to choose from the worst that humanity has to offer.
