Col

Midlands, UK. Humour, news and eclectic interesting items. My toots may not all be original. I follow views without necessarily endorsing them, and I unfollow most non followers. I usually block those who argue or abuse. Ex Cop. LCFC. Header picture is 'Arriving at the Hall' by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

Public Key

npub17eyj2cpxrxcm25kt0nhn6tf0j89xyhypskgs3ykldw7zl64gcr0qdut905

NIP-05 Address

kibcol1049@mstdn-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0vjf9vqnpnvd42t9hemea95herjnztjqctyggjt0kh0p0a25vphspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatz95sug2

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub17eyj2cpxrxcm25kt0nhn6tf0j89xyhypskgs3ykldw7zl64gcr0qdut905

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Last Notes

2026-10-24 13:37:33 UTC

QR codes are everywhere now and they have built-in error correction, which is a fancy way of saying they come with backup data. A scanner can still read the code even if about 30% of it is damaged, smudged or covered up. Now the scary part: Scammers love QR codes. They paste fake QR stickers over real ones on parking meters and signs. Before you scan, make sure it’s not some sticker slapped on. After you scan, read the web address before you tap or pay.

2026-10-22 05:46:01 UTC

I read about a new diet where you can't drink alcohol.
Well, at least I read about it.

2026-10-22 05:45:37 UTC

It's funny how the politicians who say we should work until we're 70 get a lifetime pension, free healthcare, and only "work" about 100 days out of each year...

2026-10-22 05:45:13 UTC

At work, he hides, because he knows a good worker is hard to find.

2026-10-21 06:11:51 UTC

He'll never be over the hill, he's way too lazy to climb up it in the first place.

2026-10-20 09:19:09 UTC

Alberta voters reject plan for referendum to leave Canada https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/20/canada-alberta-rejects-independence-succession-referendum?CMP=share_btn_url

2026-10-20 06:33:33 UTC

My mate had a big gong in his bedroom.
"What's that?" I asked.
He said, "it's a speaking clock"
"How does it work?" I asked.
He picked up a hammer and hit it, and two seconds later a voice came through the wall shouting,
"For fu*k sake! It's half past two in the morning!"

2026-10-19 06:36:41 UTC

He's stopped blaming everyone for his problems.
He's picked just one person he really hates, and blames them for everything!

2026-10-17 07:05:52 UTC

Adults are regressing, says Kat Rosenfield in The Free Press. For the first time, adult-only households in America spend more on toys than households with children. Orlando theme parks are “overrun” by “childless Disney adults”. Plenty of mid-lifers still sleep with their teddies, 40-something dads scurry away to their “man caves” to play video games, and countless women stack their arms with friendship bracelets to watch 36-year-old Taylor Swift sing saccharine lyrics about her crushes.

2026-10-16 12:19:08 UTC

Reform UK’s first female MP has been filmed telling an undercover ITV reporter that senior party officials are “so f***ing chauvinistic”. Sarah Pochin said women were “excluded” by the party’s “alpha males”. Separate footage shows Reform councillors describing Asian homeowners as “parasites”, black children as “animals” and one calling for the beheading of King Charles over rumours he was Muslim.

2026-10-15 12:47:16 UTC

Russell Brand was a “ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator”, prosecutors said at the start of his high-profile trial at Southwark crown court yesterday. The 51-year-old comedian and podcaster is facing three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault alleged to have taken place between 1999 and 2009, all of which he denies.

2026-10-14 06:02:15 UTC

Kimberly Guilfoyle is stepping down as US ambassador to Greece after weeks of reports that she sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials.

2026-10-14 05:59:39 UTC

Extremists holding anti-immigration opinions are becoming increasingly likely to consider carrying out terrorist attacks against immigration centres and asylum hotels, the head of MI5 has warned.

2026-10-13 12:01:51 UTC

Women are more likely than men to be told by doctors that their symptoms are “all in their head”, a new study has found. Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia who studied 6,600 patients with autoimmune diseases found that women were 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed with psychological issues, such as anxiety or stress, rather than physical ailments.

2026-10-13 11:17:03 UTC

"Seeing AI" is a useful free app when you can't find your glasses. Point your phone at a label, a menu or the electric bill, and it reads the words out loud. No squinting, no hunting for glasses.
Microsoft built it for people who are blind or have low vision, and it’s available on iPhone and Android. It's like a pair of reading glasses when you can't find yours, or the print is too small to read even with your glasses. (Don't laugh, we all get there eventually!)

2026-10-12 11:51:48 UTC

Walmart spent billions in the US automating its warehouses. But the robots can’t handle the dog food. The Wall Street Journal reports Walmart’s small wheeled robots, now in over a dozen warehouses, struggle with big, heavy items like dog food bags and break down often. Worse, the engineers who babysit them can cost more than the warehouse workers they replaced!

2026-10-12 11:39:06 UTC

Amazon quietly writes notes about who it thinks you are, based on what you buy. E.G.
“Probably owns a Shark robot vacuum”
“Invested in the Apple ecosystem”
Guesses like these affect what Amazon shows you and what it nudges you to buy.
Read your Amazon file.
On a computer:
Hover over Hello, [your name] at the upper right, and click Account. Under Ordering and shopping preferences, click Your Shopping preferences.
Scroll to the bottom and click Manage your information.

2026-10-12 07:33:12 UTC

Illegal Immigration facts. France has played an absolute blinder.
Conditions in the migrant camps are appalling. Filthy, overcrowded slums that make France look like somewhere nobody wants to stay and Britain look like the land of opportunity. Clever! Then buses transport migrants, gendarmes walking groups towards the beaches like they’re on a school trip, and French vessels accompany boats across the Channel until Britain takes over. Stop handing France millions to treat people so badly.

2026-10-12 05:50:47 UTC

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

2026-10-11 16:14:15 UTC

The world’s oldest land animal may hold clues to longer life: Scientists have found that Jonathan, an Aldabra giant tortoise estimated to be 194 years old, carries unusual genetic traits tied to DNA repair, tumor suppression, mitochondrial health, & the removal of ageing cells. Parts of his epigenome also resemble those of a 5yr old tortoise. Similar patterns show up in exceptionally long-lived people, so the findings could help researchers understand what keeps human cells healthier for longer.

2026-10-09 15:46:53 UTC

Tesco is not only Britain’s largest private-sector employer, it’s also now the 1st to offer paid “safe leave” for domestic abuse victims. It has also trained managers to spot signs of domestic abuse and help direct people to support. Tesco will not require people to provide formal evidence to access safe leave. The policy gives employees up to 3 days of flexible paid leave for things like attending court hearings, arranging emergency housing, changing locks, separating finances, and more.

2026-10-09 11:34:40 UTC

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to South African jurist and former UN human rights commissioner Navanethem “Navi” Pillay. Unfortunately the committee weren’t able to get through to her before the announcement in Oslo this morning. “If you see a Norwegian number calling,” said chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes, “please pick up.”

2026-10-09 11:33:04 UTC

The Pentagon has confirmed it will livestream the execution by firing squad of former US army major Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. The execution is scheduled for 3 December; if it is carried out, Nidal will be the first person to be publicly executed in the US since 1936 and the first soldier to be put to death by firing squad since World War Two.

2026-10-08 18:19:18 UTC

Drivers will be able to see the real-time price of fuel on Google Maps from today as part of a government attempt to save motorists money. The navigation app will use data from the government’s fuel finder scheme to display live pump prices at nearby forecourts when users search for petrol stations.

2026-10-08 08:06:12 UTC

Held every year on 11 October, International Day of the Girl Child celebrates girls’ rights, voices and achievements, while looking at what needs to change to give every girl the chance to shape her own future. This year, the focus is on ending child marriage. The idea is hopeful: a world where girls can stay in education, grow up safely, make their own choices and have the same opportunities as everyone else. 68 million child marriages have been prevented in the past 25 years.

2026-10-07 13:17:06 UTC

A British man who has spent 28 years walking around the world without using any form of transport has made it back to the UK. Karl Bushby, 57, began his journey at the southern tip of Chile in 1998 and is heading for his mother’s home in Hull. He arrived in Dover on Monday after swimming the Channel over three days.

2026-10-06 13:42:41 UTC

The Conservatives have pledged to invest £10bn in a “British Iron Dome” if they win the next general election. The party says the so-called “Britannia shield” would provide an integrated network of radar, command and control systems, as well as interceptor missiles, and could be paid for using savings from cuts to welfare and net zero.

2026-10-06 06:15:41 UTC

Donald Trump’s approval ratings reached a record low on Monday, according to new opinion polls. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%.

2026-10-05 06:17:24 UTC

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3."
Alice Khan

2026-10-03 09:40:46 UTC

Comedy wildlife photography award finalists 2026 – in pictures https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2026/oct/03/comedy-wildlife-photography-awards-2026-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_url

2026-10-03 08:31:15 UTC

Female politicians”, the “elderly”, “mothers and fathers”, “homosexuals” and “youngsters”, is 'unacceptable' according to the Green Party’s guidance on language. The Orwellian glossary of “Inclusive Terminology”, produced for the party’s conference this weekend, also disapproves of “able-bodied”, “sex-change” and “sexual preference”, and recommends replacing “gendered job titles” with gender-neutral terms: “chair” rather than “chairman”, for example, and “police officer” instead of “policeman”.

2026-10-03 06:17:58 UTC

Dating is just wondering why someone is single, then figuring out why.

2026-10-01 06:18:55 UTC

Why read a dystopian novel when you can just pay attention to what's going on in the world.

2026-09-29 06:57:04 UTC

A senior member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ruling party was beaten to death on Sunday after appearing on a radio programme to raise awareness about the Ebola outbreak, a party representative has said.

2026-09-28 07:00:42 UTC

“A path is made by walking on it.”
Chuang Tzu

2026-09-27 06:46:14 UTC

Me: What are you carrying?
Mate: A new thermos flask, it keeps hot things hot and cold things cold.
Me: What have you got in it?
Mate: Ice cream and hot coffee!

2026-09-24 06:16:25 UTC

Andy Burnham has signalled he may lift the ban on drinking alcohol in the stands at football matches, suggesting it is “unfair” for fans to be singled out when it is permitted for other sports.

2026-09-23 13:58:27 UTC

Why does 69° never appear on Apple’s Weather app. It calculated temperatures in whole Celsius numbers first, then converted them to Fahrenheit for display.
That meant 20°C showed up as 68°F, while 21°C became 69.8°F and rounded to 70°F. So 69 never had a clean landing spot. Same deal for 65 and 71, but let’s be honest, nobody was launching investigations over those.

2026-09-23 06:30:58 UTC

When my friends and I experimented with sex and drugs when we were in high school.
I was the control group!

2026-09-22 06:27:39 UTC

After President Trump’s snap decision to ban CNN from the White House, the four other networks that comprise the White House’s TV pool decided they would cease their pooled coverage of the president.

2026-09-22 06:24:27 UTC

The UK has agreed to provide defensive air support to Saudi Arabia to help counter Houthi fighters and restore stability in the Middle East while driving down the cost of living at home, Andy Burnham has said, ahead of his first meeting with Donald Trump.

2026-09-21 06:40:06 UTC

Studies show that 65% of people don't understand maths. Not me! I'm among the other 55%.

2026-09-20 10:47:34 UTC

About 11,100 Starlink satellites now serve 13 million broadband customers. But what happens when one breaks? Here’s the answer: Nobody fixes it. There’s no repairman in orbit.
Each Starlink is designed to last about five years. When data says it’s sick or worn out, it fires its own thrusters, lowers itself and steers toward the open ocean. Around 78 miles up, it burns. SpaceX says 95% vaporizes.

2026-09-20 05:08:52 UTC

No one warned me that being an adult is mostly just hurrying to get to somewhere you didn't really want to be in the first place!

2026-09-11 12:34:28 UTC

Almost 200 years after they were hunted to extinction, bison are now preventing wildfires and regenerating northern Mexico. In a major conservation effort, 47 American bison were introduced in the Cuatrociénegas region in 2025 and are already rejuvenating the local ecosystem.

2026-09-11 05:49:40 UTC

When your dad is mad at you and asks you "Do l look stupid "?
Don't answer him.
(Billy age 8)

2026-09-09 07:01:39 UTC

For almost half a century, British governments have condemned illegal Israeli settlements, acknowledging they represent an obstacle to peace and threaten the prospect of a two-state solution. And yet no government has ever compelled Israel to stop its expansion. Ed Miliband’s statement in the House of Commons yesterday was an attempt to change that. In a powerful and emotive speech, the foreign secretary recounted childhood memories of picking oranges on his grandmother’s kibbutz.

2026-09-09 06:04:25 UTC

Donald Trump gave sizeable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.

2026-09-09 06:00:42 UTC

Andy Burnham should tackle inequality in the UK by introducing a wealth tax, universal free personal social care and bringing gas and electricity networks under public ownership, according to a report from more than a dozen influential thinkers.

2026-09-08 06:02:10 UTC

Ed Miliband will announce what he has described as a broad reset of the UK’s relations with Israel on Tuesday, promising the government will take a more active approach in supporting the Palestinian cause.

2026-09-08 06:01:08 UTC

Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”.

2026-09-07 14:44:08 UTC

Germany started this week, says Dirk Kurbjuweit in Der Spiegel feeling “horror”. How did the far-right AfD win the state election in Saxony-Anhalt by a landslide only 80 years after the atrocities of WW II. The AfD’s Ulrich Siegmund was surrounded with right-wing extremists and failed to distance himself from supporters harassing journalists or giving the Hitler salute. With these people now “on the threshold of power”, Germany faces nothing less than “the end of liberal democracy”.

2026-09-05 15:56:17 UTC

If cybercrime were a country, its economy would rank 3rd in the world, right behind the U.S. and China. Yes, the digital bad guys would be the third biggest economy on planet Earth, and that text from “your bank” could be asking for a contribution. Cybercrime damage runs about $10.5 trillion a year. The cloud sounds less like a fluffy tech miracle and more like a neighbourhood where you lock your car doors.

2026-09-05 05:54:56 UTC

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."
Mary Shelley

2026-09-03 12:29:28 UTC

Londoners can hire self-driving taxis for the first time, after rides in Wayve’s autonomous cars were added to the Uber app this morning. It’s not yet the full techno-future experience: so far there are only 15 of the robotaxis across the whole capital, and each one has a human in the front seat ready to take over in an emergency.

2026-09-03 12:20:46 UTC

Meta remotely disabled the cameras on thousands of its AI glasses after owners covered or destroyed the little LED that tells people they’re being recorded. A software update spots a blocked light and turns the glasses into plain Bluetooth headphones. Meta sold 7 million pairs last year, so even though they estimate misuse at less than 0.1%, that’s a lot of creeps. Frames of reference matter.

2026-09-01 13:09:48 UTC

Turns out drones are good for more than Amazon delivery and making your neighbour call the police. A man in his 60s collapsed from cardiac arrest in Sweden, an Everdrone took off just 15 seconds after the emergency call. Three-ish minutes later, it lowered a defibrillator to the scene, several minutes ahead of the typical ambulance response. That can make all the difference. A stranger grabbed the lifesaving device, got instructions & shocked the man’s heart. He survived. No drone jokes today!

2026-08-31 16:28:41 UTC

Kazakhstan has released its first tiger into the wild more than seven decades since the last confirmed sighting of the big cat in the country. On July 31, 2026, an adult female Amur tiger called Umit, which means “hope” in Kazakh, was released into the wilderness of the 1.1 million-acre Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in southeastern Kazakhstan. Umit is fitted with a satellite tracking collar to monitor her movements and behavior in real time.

2026-08-30 19:10:26 UTC

BBC News - Prisoners freed early are returning to jail at rapid rate, governors tell BBC - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14dlm5e22ko

2026-08-30 14:18:18 UTC

We lost Dolly Parton last week at 80, and while the world was still crying, the crooks got to work within 2 hours. AI-generated audio and video "of" her scams hit across Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube. Fake charity accounts, phony memorial merch, donation pleas in gift cards or crypto. Type dollywoodfoundation.org yourself and give there. Dolly spent her life giving. Don’t let a scammer use her name, or a fake AI version of her voice, to take.

2026-08-30 07:51:20 UTC

Police forces across the UK, have unveiled a new weapon to stop e-bikes, e-scooters and motorcycles. A DNA tagging spray from SelectaDNA, as well as DeterTech’s SmartTag, fired from a handheld canister over distances of up to 10 metres, coating riders, clothing and bikes with an invisible marker.
Why does it have to be invisible? Add bright red unremovable dye too. Thick gooey and a bit smelly! Having been hit by one of these scooters on a pavement, who didn't stop, I feel strongly about this.

2026-08-30 05:37:11 UTC

I envy people that grow old gracefully. They age like a fine wine.
I'm aging like milk...
Getting sour and chunky.

2026-08-29 07:22:10 UTC

Canadians do not seek a trade war – but nor will we be bullied by Donald Trump | Jen Gerson https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/25/canadians-trade-war-bullied-donald-trump-alliance-rupture?CMP=share_btn_url

2026-08-29 06:09:08 UTC

The world is much more democratic than it was half a century ago. In 1789, only two of the 76 countries in the world had an elected parliament and elected government — the United Kingdom and the United States. As of 2025, 34 countries do not have elected parliaments and governments — and 165 do.

2026-08-28 12:25:44 UTC

People have a dangerous habit of only taking warning signs seriously after a catastrophe, says Jen Easterly in The NY Times. EG, before the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986, Nasa contractors warned that cold weather could compromise the shuttle’s O-rings. In the weeks before 9/11, information poured into the CIA including a large number of “people of interest” at Arizona flight schools. The 9/11 commission called it a “failure of imagination”. And it’s happening today with AI.

2026-08-28 12:14:08 UTC

Mass evacuations have been ordered on the Nepal-Tibet border amid fears that an overflowing lake could cause a second flood that may be more devastating than Wednesday’s. Chinese authorities, who had paused rescue operations owing to the concern, say rescuers have now resumed work. The death toll has passed 500.

2026-08-28 07:06:28 UTC

The only climate scientist teaching at West Point, the US army’s military academy, was fired after he resisted an order to stop teaching about the human causes of the climate emergency.

2026-08-28 07:03:02 UTC

Russia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week.

2026-08-28 06:55:26 UTC

He called the Tinnitus help line.
But it just kept ringing.

2026-08-27 06:43:42 UTC

Levels of a toxic “forever chemical” rose to 13 times the legal limit during Thames Water pilots for a controversial multimillion pound water recycling scheme that will pump millions of litres of treated sewage into the River Thames during drought.

2026-08-27 06:42:23 UTC

More than 1,000 people are missing – the majority of whom are tourists – after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet, wiping out entire villages and leaving a preliminary death toll of 165, authorities said.

2026-08-27 06:31:54 UTC

You know you've picked a bad nursing home for your loved one when they have to book the communal bedpan.

2026-08-27 06:30:51 UTC

They should invent a hearing aid that looks like a Bluetooth headset. People are embarrassed of wearing a hearing aid but not a Bluetooth.

2026-08-27 06:30:29 UTC

My workmates think I go out of my way to annoy them, but it's not out of my way at all.

2026-08-26 06:20:14 UTC

UK citizens will be told to stock up on tinned food and take steps to ensure they are prepared for national emergencies as part of a new government campaign to improve the nation’s resilience.

2026-08-25 12:04:40 UTC

Microsoft broke your printer: Yep, they’re actually to blame this time. Thanks to this month’s Windows update, some apps may fail when you try to print or save something as a PDF or XPS file. Weirdly, it only happens with certain fonts, like Calibri. There’s no permanent fix yet.

2026-08-25 06:25:45 UTC

Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, is on course to earn as much from the social media platform X as he does from his salary as an MP, after surging income from posts that include demands for mass deportations.

2026-08-25 06:22:59 UTC

I've stopped thinking that I'm ugly.
I am, but I've stopped thinking it.

2026-08-24 12:40:29 UTC

A cyberattack that shut down a small power facility in the UK last month has been described by security officials as a “warning shot” from Iran. Hackers affiliated with the Iranian regime disabled an undisclosed power plant for four days, in what is thought to be a threat from Tehran demonstrating its ability to attack critical British national infrastructure.

2026-08-24 12:39:45 UTC

Britain has agreed to give Ukraine classified blueprints for a long-range missile, as Andy Burham arrives in Kyiv today for his first overseas visit since becoming prime minister. Details of the British components of a French long-range missile will allow Kyiv to start producing the weapon itself, after Ukraine and France struck a defence deal last week aimed at boosting weapons production in the war-torn country.

2026-08-24 11:23:31 UTC

The city of Ulsan in South Korea is dropping a $37 million data center into the ocean, using cold seawater to cool AI servers instead of the electricity-guzzling chillers land-based centers burn through. Microsoft tried this years ago and found underwater servers actually failed less often, because there are no humans down there bumping into things. If it works, expect more. The cloud is officially becoming the sea.

2026-08-23 06:20:27 UTC

“No man is a failure who is enjoying life”
William Feather

2026-08-23 06:17:24 UTC

Have you ever noticed, people with irritating coughs don't go to the doctors.....they go to the theatre, the cinema, the concert.....

2026-08-22 09:29:06 UTC

Russia has continued to pummel Ukraine, using increasingly high-tech equipment, with “devastating consequences”. When Ukrainians started digging through the rubble after major attacks to analyse fragments of the Russian weaponry, they realised a lot of the most high-tech components were coming from Japan. Tokyo is a vocal supporter of Kyiv, but owing to its lack of a foreign intelligence service, it’s a “spy paradise”. Russia has a specialist spy unit dedicated to evading Western sanctions there

2026-08-21 14:01:07 UTC

BBC News - Prince Harry and six others ordered to pay initial £9.5m to Daily Mail publisher
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04kwr9r1zlo

2026-08-21 13:55:55 UTC

- reply

Since the millennium, the UK has built something like 450 data centres, more than 1,000 onshore wind farms and over a hundred miles of new motorway. But in all that time, we’ve built not a single new reservoir. Germany, by comparison, has built 20, and France has more than 100 water storage projects under construction.

2026-08-21 13:55:40 UTC

Britain’s water companies are a disgrace. Millions of people in the UK have spent the summer watching their gardens turn to dustbowls under strict hosepipe bans, says Simon Kelner in The i Paper. But it’s not as though we’ve suddenly run out of water – we simply lack the infrastructure needed to capture, store, transport and conserve it.

2026-08-21 06:49:24 UTC

Far-right Israel national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offences will be hanged.

2026-08-20 11:00:22 UTC

Before you trust that Instagram account: If you’re buying something or just getting a weird vibe, first do a quick background check. Open the seller’s profile, tap the three dots in the top right, then About this account. You’ll see when they joined, where they’re based and any former usernames. Brand-new account with a bunch of name changes? I’d be very careful.

2026-08-20 09:31:29 UTC

What about a pot of money designed to give you a little more freedom instead of being for a broken boiler or unexpected bill? A “f*** it fund” is a savings pot set aside specifically to give you financial breathing room. If you ever need to leave a job, move out, take time off, end a relationship or need a change, you have some money behind you. A f*** it fund is more about choice and having enough money that you don’t feel completely dependent on someone else, or trapped by your circumstances.

2026-08-19 13:20:38 UTC

Scientists say they have been “stunned” by the recovery of children’s lungs since the introduction of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone in 2019. Researchers found that reduced emissions had vastly improved the lung capacity of primary school children whose lung growth had been stunted by pollution.

2026-08-19 10:49:11 UTC

Why were the letters on the QWERTY keyboard arranged the way they were?
So the metal arms wouldn’t smack into each other mid-word on early typewriters. They could jam when typebars close to each other fired too quickly, so QWERTY helped space out commonly paired letters. Your keyboard layout started as 19th-century traffic control!

2026-08-19 06:01:44 UTC

The company behind Grenfell Tower’s flammable cladding gave more compensation to its shareholders than to victims of the disaster, an investigation has found.

2026-08-18 10:53:34 UTC

Stop what you’re doing and update your iPhone. Apple just pushed iOS 26.6.1 (plus Mac, iPad and Vision Pro updates) fixing nearly 30 security holes, including a batch in the browser engine every app uses. This isn’t a “new emoji” update, it’s a “lock the doors” update. Tap Settings > General > Software Update and let it run while you sleep. Thirty holes patched, zero effort required. That’s my kind of home improvement.

2026-08-18 10:51:57 UTC

You’ve probably seen those videos of a silver-haired gentleman at a podcast microphone, explaining why women deserve better. Remove the gentleman, the podcast and any lived experience whatsoever. Facebook pages are manufacturing these AI heartthrobs for mostly women, then harvesting clicks and selling ebooks or subscriptions. I’m talking 126,000 to a million views per video. At least he’ll never ghost you. He already is one!

2026-08-18 10:48:35 UTC

Former Waymo engineers launched Bedrock Robotics to retrofit excavators and bulldozers with self-driving sensors and AI, so they can dig trenches and move earth without anyone in the cab. That could fix the labour shortage slowing down major building projects, but it also puts skilled operators in the crosshairs. Somewhere, Fred Flintstone lost his job at the quarry.

2026-08-17 06:05:28 UTC

Nobody sees my 5am runs.
Nobody sees me choosing a salad over fries.
Nobody sees me doing yoga in a peaceful sunlit room.
Because I don't do any of that.

2026-08-17 06:04:38 UTC

When I was a younger, I had to memorise friends and family phone numbers, I wonder what that part of my brain is doing nowadays...

2026-08-16 16:45:49 UTC

A test vehicle at China's East Lake High-Speed Railway Lab accelerated from zero to 800 kilometers per hour in just 5.3 seconds — as fast as the cruising speed of a commercial airplane and theoretically fast enough to travel from New York to LA in roughly five hours. It's the third world record broken at the same facility since 2025. The lab's ultimate target is 1,000 km/h, and at this rate of progress, it appears well on track to get there.

2026-08-16 15:38:48 UTC

Heatwaves lead to... air cons!
Lately, it’s felt like we’ve been stuck in a never-ending heatwave. But as temperatures rise (again), so does the risk of air conditioning scams.
You may have seen them already: adverts on Facebook or Instagram for portable air conditioning units that are easy to set up and cool your room down in minutes. Tempting as they may be, they’re often a scam — you’ll either get a cheap, barely functional fan, or nothing at all. Beware friends.