i tend to only take advantage (is that the right word?) of #BandcampFriday when it falls near a payday. and in any case i tend not to wear my commercial choices on my sleeve.

but it seems to me that more people deserve to know about Cinder Well. They have albums on bandcamp and i bought one.

if you're up for angsty alt-folk that might turn your heart inside out, this is that.

(If you liked the theme of the UK show Small Prophets, that was them.)

#Bandcamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymxCN77-uDw

The band was surprisingly good for a modern jazz group. Still, Sonja was glad the bar was distant enough to afford some quiet.

"Martini please. Gin." It felt like a sophisticated evening, she thought, absently tapping the barely audible complex rhythm on the bar.

"They're not bad," said a voice on her right. She turned to see a well-dressed, dark haired man. He watched her fingers drumming, then turned to face her.

"Hi, I'm Martin. Martin Riviera."

She felt mischievous. "I'm Sonja. Sonja Papermoon."

"Paper Moon?"

"Yes, my parents are Ella Fitzgerald fans. Sonja Papermoon, sailing over a cardboard sea..."

"So you have a sister named Summer Thyme, I suppose?"

"The man knows is music." she laughed. "It's Sonja Pepperidge."

"Sonja Pepperidge..." He sang it to the tune. "Yes, I can see it."

"What did your parents sing to you, when you were a child?"

"Sing? No, they weren't singers. Mostly they called me ¡Martín!" he trilled the r, his face wearing a disapproving gaze.

A new rhythm wafted over. The band were playing Mack the Knife, the singer doing her best Fitzgerald impression.

"Surely this is a sign we should dance?" Martin offered his hand.

She laughed and took his hand in hers.

#wss366 #jazz #microfiction

So, professor, your findings?"

"Yes, yes. This small bird, which I've nicknamed the 'marling', has developed a potent defence against nest raiders - jays, crows and such."

"Many birds have such defences, such as hiding the nest or mobbing attackers. What's special about this one?"

"Well, the marling does something never seen before. Approximately one in three of its eggs are traps."

"Traps?"

"Yes. It looks like a normal egg, but it has no chick. When pierced, it explodes, releasing a #cocktail of smelly droppings, high in uric acid, with a sticky substance we've yet to identify. The attacker is soaked. Wet, sticky feathers hinder flight, and it could blind the attacker if it gets it their eyes."

"Does that really deter predatory birds from preying on marling eggs?"

"Gentlemen, here's a plate with three eggs. Two normal, hard boiled. One will explode with a sticky acid which could make you go blind. Anyone want an egg?"

#Mastoprompt #microfiction

BTW -- that policy about ridding the country of homelessness? I think it's bloody silly.

That's not a policy, because you can't control whether people are homeless or not. It's like saying you'll have a policy of no more heatwaves, or winning the world cup.

Sure, you can do things as a government to _help_ prevent homelessness. And we should definitely do that! But that's the policy, not "ending homelessness!!!1one!" -- which is just a soundbite.

so, we've had Burnhams first speech. time to review all those "andy burnham will say…" news articles that we were praising or damning him for on here.

did he say he'd grant new drilling licenses? no. did he in fact say any of the things we were authoratatively told he would say? no, none of them.

are any of them going to be policy? WE. DON'T. KNOW. YET.

#UKPol

3⁠⁠̶̶4⁠⁠̶̶ 35

https://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/content/13-august2026-election-of-member-of-parliament-to-the-clacton-constituency

Clacton by-election now has a record ⁠⁠3⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠̶3⁠⁠̶ 34 candidates — including three separate entries from the Monster Raving Looney Party…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckge923jk3vo

…so why, exactly, is the only person standing against farage, count binface?

i mean, one would be tempted to conclude that the other parties want him re-elected…

https://mastodon.social/@netpol/116879949104640174

asking for #advice again, sorry.

i'm now officially #diabetic (type 2) and looking to control it with diet. (hence the last request for advice.)

information about nutrition on the internet has always been a hot mess, more so in these days of so-called "Al".

can anyone recommend an _authoritative_ source on the amount of carbohydrate in basic foods?

searching online i see *wildly* different numbers for, eg, potato.

edit: okay, wow! thank you, everyone! You'll all wonderful! Love this place!

isn't… isn't it supposed to get colder overnight?

it's not yet 8am and it's been 31°C in my office since 2am?

Slightly odd. I don't often use the web interface. It turns out that there was a follower request waiting for me to authorise.

I don't have that turned on, though. It came with a message saying someone (presumably the mods?) thought I might want to authorise this one anyway?

What's that about?

I don't immediately see any red flags about the account unless I start to get paranoid. I won't say who it is. I've put a note on the account. They are local to this instance.

does anyone have any recomendations for a recipie book for proper, old fashioned hippie food? brown rice, lentils, beans?

seems i have to eat more healthy now. in my case, this sort of food is a good match — and i really love eating it…

feel free to boost.

edit: suggestions for modern search terms for this sort of food would be useful, too.

re: voting, take a look here. ignore the text, scroll down to where it says:

**Makerfield's left and right voting blocs remain largely unchanged**

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/19/nigel-farage-urges-restore-voters-to-back-reform-after-disappointing-night-in-makerfield

So, despite all the bluster by every party, what appears to have happened in #Makerfield is: if you normally voted for reform, the tories or the like, you carried on as normal; if you voted for any party that claimed to be of the centre or left, you voted for #Burnham.

This is either a ringing endorsement of the Labour candidate, or an act of collective grownupness by left voters in an attempt to fix things.

Either way, it's rather remarkable.

**UK could keep special pre-Brexit terms if it rejoined EU, Michel Barnier says**

> …said he could not see any obstacle to the UK keeping the pound and remaining outside the passport-free Schengen travel area should the country rejoin.

bloody hell! that's quite the come-hither!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

do you know what i would like? when the news reports on an announcement about technology from the government, the news then asks people who actually know about that technology whether it's bollocks or not.

easy job; it usually is.

@PabloMartini Just FYI that website is mainly promoting far right figures like Farage, claims Sharia law operates in UK, claims "Liz Truss was right" etc.

#microfiction
Once i had all the safety gear on – and there was a lot – they led me to a giant steel door.

"I thought," I said, having to raise my voice to be heard through the layers of padding in the helmet, "that you were hiring an IT manager?"

"We are," they said, beckoning me over and throwing open a little port in the door.

They indicated that I should look through the port. Hot red light poured through it.

"Behold: IT."

… i suspect that this has been caused by a law written ambiguously in english, or worse, by someone *thinking* ambiguously in english.