He has forgotten about the post-it notes around his house: "never go full fash, Nige (not until you remove democracy)".
Excellent pick, he's a great guy and should make a big difference.
Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce will champion reading and children's books in the two-year role.
> Novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce has been announced as the new children's laureate. > >He will take on the role, which involves championing reading and children's books, from this year until 2026. > >Cottrell-Boyce said he was "so proud" to be the new children's laureate, adding: "Writing and reading has transformed my life." > > ... > > "I write children’s books because I think they help build the apparatus of happiness inside us," Cottrell-Boyce said in a statement. > >"I’m privileged to be part of those intimate, crucial, person-forming moments when people share stories with the children in their lives." > >But he also warned the benefits of children's reading had not been taken seriously enough, adding: "We risk losing a generation unless we act." > >Liverpool-based Cottrell-Boyce said his tenure as laureate would be about "urgency", with the intention of "addressing invisible privilege and inequality". > >"It will be about the increasing number of children in poverty being left further and further behind," he said. > >"It will be about calling for national provision so that every child – from their earliest years – has access to books, reading and the transformative ways in which they improve long-term life chances."
I'm happy to help fill his hod with bricks so he can get that first course down.
It couldn't happen here!
If you can find anything about the bots then I’ll certainly try and help.
I can't find a Lemmy not bringing in the UK Politics sub but it looks like you can post a request to: !requests@zerobytes.monster If the bot starts dragging over Reddit posts then you can subscribe that rather than popping back to Reddit.
Even without the bots I’ll start to help with content.
That's the spirit.
As I said, I was worried about backlash from just copying the content from Reddit but that doesn’t sound like it’s an issue.
As long as you are linking to the original content and not just back to Reddit, then no-one will care where you found it first - I use a range of things to dig for new news.
Is it purely down to less people on Feddit vs Reddit? or some other reason?
It's a numbers game - more people = more posters = more content.
Is there any way we could ‘sync’ with Reddit to get the same content?
There are bots you can run that would bring over the content from Reddit but you wouldn't want it into a standard community as it leads to a lot of posts flooding the community and you get very little engagement. There are bot instances - I'll have a nose around and see what I can find. There's usually a community mirroring most medium to large sub's.
Also, be the change you want to see - if you find a good article, throw it in here. It's the work of moments.
I’m interested how this will dry out the area due to increased drainage yet also increase flooding.
The moors contain large peat bogs that soak up vast amounts of water and release it slowly into the catchment area. If you add drainage you dry the moors out (which has led to a lot of fires over the last few years) and increased the speed of runoff.
This area has been of specific concerns over recent years because it is upstream of Hebden Bridge which has suffered from heavy flooding recently and a lot of the blame was pinned on the land management of the moors, which has been drained and burned to make it more suitable for grouse shooting.
I’m sure this is bad, I can’t think of a reason Saudis would build something like this except to be pricks
Not quite that but also, yes. They already own the land, I believe, and their pitch is we can use it for grouse shooting or we can build wind turbines on it.
It's quite funny to picture that Venn diagram but it is often about the wider scheduling - at the end of the night you often have to just stay where you are for the last few acts. So it might not be the Coldplay crossover but the preceding acts on each stage.
I suspect it's a) them being punk and b) one of a number of people complaining about scheduling and stage assignment (Avril Lavigne was likely on too small a stage for the demand).
I was half expecting she would be revealed as the Stranger as someone must have been there to save Mae. She still makes sense as the figure pulling the strings behind the scenes although I don't think they are Sith, they are using Sith trappings as misdirection. Which would also square with the idea that the Jedi thought the Sith were long extinct during the Galactic Republic era.
Spoilers and possible spoilers
Chap at the top is claiming "Christianity is part of European identity" but the image contrasts the pagan religions of Europe 2,000 years ago (you can throw in the Celts, Romans and Greeks too) on the left with Christianity which has it's roots in various Middle Eastern religions (Judaism, Zoroastrianism, etc) on the right.
"Elaha" (ܐܠܗܐ) is the Aramaic for "God" and "Alaha" (ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ) is the same word in Syriac (both languages used by the early Church), which is similar to other Semitic languages like Hebrew (Elohim) and Arabic (Allah).
The article touches on this to some degree:
Creasy told the broadcaster that she felt “sick” to learn about the images and that “none of this is about sexual pleasure, it’s all about power and control”.
I presume the psychology behind this activity is varied - for example, I could imagine some people being so insecure that they feel the need to degrade powerful women. However, there may be others who get off on that sort of thing.
Acoustic stageThe Hollywood star brings his magnificently deep and robust voice to Glastonbury
> Glastonbury’s cinema tent has hosted an impressive range of A-listers this year, from Paul Mescal (whose short shorts are yet to influence the Glasto blokes who adore a practical cargo pocket) to Tilda Swinton, Florence Pugh, Simon Pegg and Cate Blanchett. All dilettantes at this music festival, though, compared with actually singing Russell Crowe at the field’s opposite tent, the Acoustic stage. > >In his Oscar-nominated performance in Gladiator he was “father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife”, and I rather thought he’d be uncle to a series of murdered cover versions, but I’m proved wrong. Billed as his Indoor Garden Party and backed by a sizeable band, he sings a series of self-penned songs inspired by moments in his own life, from thwarted love to the death of his father. > >If you’re wondering what Russell Crowe’s music sounds like, yes, it’s that. He lives up to his everybloke image with music that isn’t just middle of the road but actually paints the white lines down it: a bit blues-rock, a bit country-rock, a bit rock’n’roll, a bit AOR, a bit singer-songwriter. His capable, unremarkable band cover all the bar-band bases: rhythmic piano, workmanlike trumpet, backing singers in minidresses sashaying and fingerclicking. Chords resolve with all the dull predictably and solidity of a straight-to-streaming three act drama. You rather imagine if Crowe transposed his lyrics into film dialogue, he’d wrinkle his nose at the script’s cliches and aphorisms: “Time keeps rolling on to the happy ever after”, “water is stronger than stone”, “how do I take this losing hand and somehow win”. A number of tracks are from a new album with the quite operatically Alan Partridgean title of Prose and Cons. There’s also flash of danger early on when his mic has a touch of static and he gives a glance sideways of pure intimidation. A new one is duly provided within about four seconds. > > ... > > He has that unreachable reality-bending presence of Hollywood actors, while being remarkably down to earth: a potent combo. Crowe may not be the world’s greatest songwriter, but he’s a very decent singer, and a truly world-class star.
I suppose this is Rule 34 in full effect but it's still depressing to hear about.
Leading politicians victimised by online material including AI deepfakes, investigation finds
> British female politicians have become the victims of fake pornography, with some of their faces used in nude images created using artificial intelligence. > >Political candidates targeted on one prominent fake pornography website include: the Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner; the education secretary, Gillian Keegan; the Commons leader, Penny Mordaunt; the former home secretary, Priti Patel; and the Labour backbencher Stella Creasy, according to Channel 4 News. > > Many of the images have been online for several years and attracted hundreds of thousands of views. > >While some are crude Photoshops featuring the politician’s head imposed on to another person’s naked body, other images appear to be more complicated deepfakes that have been created using AI technology. Some of the politicians targeted have now contacted police.
Welcome to thr Bizarro World of Tory politics. We've got an Environment Minister who doesn't care that the rivers and overflowing with excrement. The Housing Minister hasn't overseen much housebuilding. And on and on.
I'm conflicted as I love the original but there's things that could be improved (a Scottish Spaniard? A French Scotsman?) and Highlander 2 torpedoed the franchise, it only really recovered to some extent with the TV series. So if they have new stories to tell, I'll give it a go.
Irish folk group Lankum give a tear-jerking, intense performance for their Saturday afternoon slot at Glastonbury Festival
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14095967
> > A black cloud makes its way across Glastonbury Festival’s Park stage - though today it’s a metaphorical one, for the bleakness that Dublin folk group Lankum bring feels entirely out of place in the current setting of gleaming sun that shines its way in a cheery halo around the area. In similar spirit, the band’s performance is one of polarity; great despair and intense joy, ebullient jigs and dismal doom. And in a word, the experience is spectacular. > > > > After welcoming their crowd of “sexy weirdos” - the band are continually warm and witty - Lankum creep into their ten-minute cover of traditional folk song The Wild Rover from 2019’s The Livelong Day. The crowd are eerily silent (which is impressive, for this commonly chatty Glastonbury lot) as strings build into a see-sawing, foreboding melody to frontwoman Radie Peat’s bewitching voice, who is soon joined by the rest of her band - Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch and Cormac MacDiarmada - in haunting harmony. Then, the strings bend, aching and swelling all the more into chasm-deep wells of dread. Lankum’s sense of doom is both disturbing yet euphoric, a tragic, glorious rebirth of the senses that finds its way into each of their following songs. > > > > ... > > > > Images of grisly landscapes echo in the mind later for the closing Go Dig My Grave from 2023’s Mercury Award-nominated False Lankum, its overwhelming cacophony bleeding out into the best folk horror soundtrack never written. As they finish, the tense shoulders and held-breaths of the crowd give out into roaring, satiated applause, and the momentarily, oh-so-deliciously dark corner of Glastonbury returns to its former, now somewhat more ordinary light. > > BBC Music have their Glastonbury performance of Bear Creek.
Irish folk group Lankum give a tear-jerking, intense performance for their Saturday afternoon slot at Glastonbury Festival
> A black cloud makes its way across Glastonbury Festival’s Park stage - though today it’s a metaphorical one, for the bleakness that Dublin folk group Lankum bring feels entirely out of place in the current setting of gleaming sun that shines its way in a cheery halo around the area. In similar spirit, the band’s performance is one of polarity; great despair and intense joy, ebullient jigs and dismal doom. And in a word, the experience is spectacular. > > After welcoming their crowd of “sexy weirdos” - the band are continually warm and witty - Lankum creep into their ten-minute cover of traditional folk song The Wild Rover from 2019’s The Livelong Day. The crowd are eerily silent (which is impressive, for this commonly chatty Glastonbury lot) as strings build into a see-sawing, foreboding melody to frontwoman Radie Peat’s bewitching voice, who is soon joined by the rest of her band - Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch and Cormac MacDiarmada - in haunting harmony. Then, the strings bend, aching and swelling all the more into chasm-deep wells of dread. Lankum’s sense of doom is both disturbing yet euphoric, a tragic, glorious rebirth of the senses that finds its way into each of their following songs. > > ... > > Images of grisly landscapes echo in the mind later for the closing Go Dig My Grave from 2023’s Mercury Award-nominated False Lankum, its overwhelming cacophony bleeding out into the best folk horror soundtrack never written. As they finish, the tense shoulders and held-breaths of the crowd give out into roaring, satiated applause, and the momentarily, oh-so-deliciously dark corner of Glastonbury returns to its former, now somewhat more ordinary light.
BBC Music have their Glastonbury performance of Bear Creek.
Anyone got anything to cheer me up?
I'll be really surprised and disappointed if it doesn't get a cinema release.
But either way it’s good news for movie theaters in a summer season that’s finally heating up but still running far behind last year (down 19%) and pre-pandemic norms (down 36% from 2019).
And with Deadpool and Wolverine inbound the momentum should be maintained.
Perhaps it's no surprise that the summer has got off to a slow start as the writer's strike pushed the schedules back.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” is making noise at the box office
> “ A Quiet Place: Day One ” is making noise at the box office. The prequel earned an estimated $53 million in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. > > It’s both a franchise best and significantly more than expected. Going into the weekend, prerelease tracking had “Day One” pegged for a $40 million debut, but audiences were clearly more enthusiastic to see the action-horror starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn and released by Paramount. The same could not be said for Kevin Costner’s “ Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1,” which opened to $11 million. > > The ”Quiet Place” victory wasn’t quite enough to snag the coveted first place spot on the charts, though. That honor again went to Disney and Pixar’s juggernaut “ Inside Out 2,” which added an estimated $57.4 million in its third weekend in theaters, and crossed $1 billion globally. > > There's a distant possibility that the places will shift when actuals are released Monday. But either way it’s good news for movie theaters in a summer season that’s finally heating up but still running far behind last year (down 19%) and pre-pandemic norms (down 36% from 2019). > > “Inside Out 2” continues to be a box office phenomenon, the likes of which the industry hasn’t seen since “Barbie” almost a year ago. In just three weeks of release, it's earned nearly $470 million in North America and $545.5 million internationally, bringing its global total to $1.01 billion. The sequel is the only 2024 release to cross the billion dollar mark and it did it in just 19 days, a record for an animated film.
After taking her name from Disney's Little Mermaid, Ariel's new life by water is going swimmingly.
> A dog born with six legs and dumped in a car park has finally found her forever home. > >Ariel made headlines around the world when, aged 11 weeks, she was discovered outside a Pembrokeshire supermarket last October. > >About £15,000 was then raised by well-wishers for a life-changing operation to remove her extra back limbs, which partially fused together to resemble a mermaid's tail. > >Now the spaniel - named after Disney's The Little Mermaid - has finally been adopted, aptly starting a new life by the sea with a couple who teach people with disabilities how to surf.
Serbian performance artist tells Pyramid stage crowd to confront cyclical violence in thousands-strong ‘collaboration’
> It’s been home to some of the UK’s loudest singalongs, most propulsive rap lyrics and most cacophonous guitar solos. But the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury experienced something almost unprecedented in its history on Friday: total silence. > >The Serbian artist Marina Abramović, invited by festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, led the audience in what she called a “collaboration” called Seven Minutes of Collective Silence, to “see how we can feel positive energy in the entire universe” and act as a bulwark against the horrors of war and violence. > >Given it was announced only a day prior, there were understandable fears that the audience would not come along in the spirit of the collaboration, and might end up chattering or even shouting out during the intended silence. But in the end, aside from some very isolated screams and shouts, the only sound moving across the grass of the Pyramid stage field was the wind blowing through the valley, and the distant thump of other stages’ performances.
> Fresh images of LEGO Star Wars 75398 C-3PO have given us our first look at the buildable droid with 75379 R2-D2, confirming that the two sets are indeed in scale. > > If you’ve been looking for an excuse to pick up 75379 R2-D2 beyond the 25th-anniversary Darth Malak minifigure, here’s one: the astromech droid scales perfectly with his protocol counterpart in 75398 C-3PO, the latest buildable character coming our way in August. > > Initially revealed by third-party retailers last week, we now have a bunch more images of the 1,138-piece set thanks to Lucky Bricks, and one of those shows the Star Wars saga’s most memorable droids together in situ. Fair warning: this image may make you want to buy two LEGO Star Wars sets that separately you had no interest in.
In 1978 Fox filed a lawsuit against Universal alleging that Battlestar Galactica infringed on Star Wars. Here's what happened in that case.
As the Glastonbury Festival weekend garners further momentum, post-punk duo Sleaford Mods took to the stage but were left unamused by the crowd.
> As the Glastonbury Festival weekend garners further momentum, Nottingham’s acclaimed post-punk duo Sleaford Mods took to the stage but were left unamused by the crowd. > >Celebrating their extensive career, Sleaford Mods delivered an intense set on the Woodsies stage on Saturday evening, which received a positive reception from their fans. However, the band did not view it in the same light. > > Vocalist Jason Williamson, who was annoyed by the less-than-impressive numbers in the audience during their slot, hit out at the festival for the arrangement. “There’s too many fucking people here. Not at our gig, I might add,” he said. “We played this stage ten years ago, and it’s still the fucking same. Glastonbury, fuck off.” > >Since their set clashed with those from The Streets and Orbital, the scheduling might have had a big role to play in that. Furthermore, with Coldplay set to play on the Pyramid Stage later that evening, many of those at the festival had already flocked to see the Chris Martin-fronted band.
Campaigners have warned that building England’s largest onshore wind farm on protected peatland would be “catastrophic for carbon storage, wildlife and flood risk”.
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14078952
> > Campaigners have warned that building England’s largest onshore wind farm on protected peatland would be “catastrophic for carbon storage, wildlife and flood risk”. > Saudi-backed developer World Wide Renewable Energy Global Ltd wants to construct the farm on more than 2,300 hectares at Walshaw Moor, between Hebden Bridge and Haworth. > > > > Consisting of up to 65 wind turbines, it would be capable of generating up to 302MW of energy. > > > > The developer said last September that it would establish a £75m community benefit fund and also pledged to end grouse shooting if it was granted planning permission. > > > > However, campaigners say it would impact endangered birds, like curlew, lapwing, skylark and merlin, and exacerbate already serious local flooding. > > > > The huge development would need 22 miles of access roads and 160 tonnes of reinforced concrete for each of the gigantic turbines. > > > > At 200m tall (655ft), the turbines would be 20m higher than London’s 41-storey Gherkin building. > > > > Campaigners say turbine construction and the associated infrastructure will affect hydrology, causing peatlands to dry out to such an extent that they will become a net emitter of carbon rather than a carbon sink.
Campaigners have warned that building England’s largest onshore wind farm on protected peatland would be “catastrophic for carbon storage, wildlife and flood risk”.
> Campaigners have warned that building England’s largest onshore wind farm on protected peatland would be “catastrophic for carbon storage, wildlife and flood risk”. Saudi-backed developer World Wide Renewable Energy Global Ltd wants to construct the farm on more than 2,300 hectares at Walshaw Moor, between Hebden Bridge and Haworth. > > Consisting of up to 65 wind turbines, it would be capable of generating up to 302MW of energy. > > The developer said last September that it would establish a £75m community benefit fund and also pledged to end grouse shooting if it was granted planning permission. > > However, campaigners say it would impact endangered birds, like curlew, lapwing, skylark and merlin, and exacerbate already serious local flooding. > > The huge development would need 22 miles of access roads and 160 tonnes of reinforced concrete for each of the gigantic turbines. > > At 200m tall (655ft), the turbines would be 20m higher than London’s 41-storey Gherkin building. > > Campaigners say turbine construction and the associated infrastructure will affect hydrology, causing peatlands to dry out to such an extent that they will become a net emitter of carbon rather than a carbon sink.
Again, spoilers for Acolyte episode 5.
> Online retailers have published the first images of two more LEGO Star Wars August 2024 sets, one of which includes another 25th-anniversary minifigure. > > The slow drip-feed of LEGO Star Wars sets coming our way next month continues with 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit. Both sets will arrive on August 1 alongside 75389 The Dark Falcon, 75392 Creative Play Droid Builder, 75393 TIE Fighter & X-Wing Mash-up, 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer and 75398 C-3PO. > > ... > > 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea > > Price: €54.99 Pieces: 382 Minifigures: 5 Release date: August 1, 2024 > > Based on the Ahsoka Disney+ TV series, 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea brings together most of the show’s main characters for a showdown on Peridea. Effectively a platform with a few turntables, the 382-piece build is mostly a backdrop for its minifigures, which include refreshed versions of Ahsoka Tano, Morgan Elsbeth, Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn, alongside a brand new Night Trooper. > > 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit > > Price: €79.99 Pieces: 558 Minifigures: 6 Release date: August 1, 2024 > > Coming in at a pretty high price for its piece count is 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, which adjusts the balance of its two builds compared to previous iterations of this scene. The skiff is a little bit smaller than we’ve seen previously, but the Sarlacc is much beefier, complete with more than a hint of its desert surroundings to create an actual pit. > > The minifigure line-up is a who’s-who of main characters, with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett comprising the primary cast. But you’ll also find a bonus minifigure here in Nien Nunb, who comes with a 25th-anniversary display stand much like Cal Kestis, ARC Trooper Fives, Darth Malak, Saw Gerrera and Young Princess Leia.
ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝 @feddit.uk A geologist and archaeologist by training, a nerd by inclination - books, films, fossils, comics, rocks, games, folklore, and, generally, the rum and uncanny... Let's have it!
Elsewhere:
- Yrtree.me - it's still early days for me in the Fediverse, so bear with me