From my FB timeline. #philanthropy

It feels chilly here.
Maybe we'd got used to the heat

#leicestershire

#FensterFreitag one of my favourite National Trust places, Stoneywell. It's an arts and crafts wonderland.

Securing return to EU single market ‘would win Burnham the next election’ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-single-market-brexit-nick-boles-andy-burnham-b3036607.html
#Brexit #politics #Europe #europa #SingleMarket

Blog post: By train to Ludlow and Hereford. Just in case you need something to read while waiting for the late start to #TOTP this evening 🙂

Features #trains #architecture a #castle and #livemusic although not from anyone featuring on tonight's Top Of The Pops.

https://snaprails.blogspot.com/2026/08/by-train-to-ludlow-and-hereford.html

Multiview, Greetings from Wembley, Middlesex, c.1960s - Postcard

https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/multiview-greetings-from-wembley-middlesex-c-1960s-postcard-224550041.htm

#Wembley #WembleyStadium

La prochaine fois qu'un homme conservateur vous signifiera son opposition à l'avortement, rappelez-lui qu'il tient une des solutions entre... ses cuisses!

I've been on this journey of trying to find that spark I once had for life.

It got trampled down and buried for a time and it makes sense that happened. I'm human after all.

I'm now returning to that part of myself, and I'm taking a minute to celebrate the shit out of that 🥳🥳🥳

This is a beautiful #concrete building at a motorway service station near #Lancaster, #UK. I believe it used to house a restaurant, which is now shut for safety reasons. I would love to see contemporary buildings that are this ambitious, unusual, and quite simply gorgeous.

Too much personal information coming up:

I'm sure you girls are used to this but due to medical Gynaecomastia I need good support for my 40B chest bumps and protection for very sensitive nips.
I'm new to this over the last few weeks.

It seems that 40B from one manufacturer isn't the same cup design as a different manufacturer. I think it's down to what they call 'projection'. I've got lots* of tissue, but very little out front - they're wide and saucer shaped.
(*Apparently a •lot• for a bloke according to the doctor).
It seems to me that the currently accepted sizing isn't fit for purpose.

Thankfully M&S were great at making sensible recommendations for fitted discrete bras, and Primark's XL crop tops are 'good enough' for around the house and for sleeping in - but discrete they ain't!
Sports bras are just the thing for a flat manly chest, but I couldn't wear one for more than 8 hours!

#gynaecomastia #Gynecomastia #BraSize #trans

Deliveries this morning from Royal Mail, Evri and Yodel-rebranded-as-InPost.
Tell me that this is sensible, economic, or environmentally OK

I might consider using either the corner shop or the lockers at the top of the road.

Rare footage shows dolphins using empty seashells as tools to catch fish, a skill called ‘shelling’
https://www.earth.com/animals/rare-footage-shows-dolphins-using-empty-seashells-as-tools-to-catch-fish-a-skill-called-shelling/
Video footage shows dolphins using empty seashells to catch fish and a calf potentially learning the hunting technique from its mother.

"The area of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate where rivers have been returned to their natural courses and wetlands have been restored have remained green and lush during the five heatwaves across the summer. In contrast, the surrounding countryside has become parched and brown"

#Rewilding #Drought #Wetlands

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/21/somerset-rewilding-holnicote-estate-wetlands-rivers-resilience

Now with alt-txt.

As Christopher Wood (Work Foundation) argues:

'Instead of succumbing to pressure & rowing back on key employment rights reforms, the [Govt.'s] focus must be on rebuilding the household spending power upon which foundational services rely on to grow';

instead of seeing workers as a cost to be reduced the Govt. need to embrace the notion that a well-paid workforce with 'good' jobs (better terms & conditions) can stoke the required 'effective demand'!

#workers #economics
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundation/news/blog/shaky-foundations-where-will-the-new-job-opportunities-come-from

If anyone is interested in starting a band, I can confidently bring the following to the table:

• I have a really cool band name in mind (this is the most important point in this list)
• I'm pretty pissed off about right-wing politics and fascist douchebags doing fascist stuff (really close second place for importance)
• Love songs are cool also

This post started out as a joke, but by the end of the bullet list I realized it would be fun and probably doable, or at least (for me) worth a try, so I kept thinking and wrote a bunch of stuff below. If you're not interested in the actual possibility of forming a band, then you should probably ignore the rest of this message and accept the somewhat-lame joke up to the end of the bullet list above.

I figure a band with interested people from the #fediverse could be pretty neat. We could send recordings around and add tracks, like The Postal Service but way cooler, of course. So much cooler. Note that "cooler" is not the same as "more skilled"; that's not a punk thing to think. It's capitalist thinking.

Things you should know if you are considering this idea with any interest

Me: I'm old by rock standards (mid-50s). I play rhythm guitar and sing. It's best not to ask tough questions like "how well do you sing?" or "do you know all the chords?" I can also play bass, somewhat less goodly. Really, what do you need for bass besides a bunch of 1s and 5s, and occasionally some 4s and 3s? Don't answer that. I'm probably too old to scream-sing but I can sing with irony, sarcasm, or possibly with feeling. I also like singing backup for people who sing better than I do. Like 90% of the human race I also write songs, which is either good, bad, or neither, depending on personal taste. Puedo hablar y escribir en español, también, pero no con fluencia perfecta.

My motivation: I deeply enjoy making music. At the same time I have, let's say, limited music-specific ambition due to structural issues: I'm not going to quit my job or miss important milestones in my daughter's life for a band, and I'm probably not driving more than 3 hours from Western New York (USA), with the possible exception of summertime, when maybe I would. Actually, 3 hours is a lot. I would need a good reason. I would not expect anyone else to have a greater level of commitment than I do, so this would probably be a long-distance internet-type collaboration, potentially with long gaps in progress and maybe with some members (maybe including me) dropping out and coming back as their lives required.

Genre: I'm most familiar with what I can do alone with a guitar: folk (sometimes with a punk spin), acoustic punk, mopey navel-gazing, parody, satire, opinionated 80s-00s covers, and apparently bluegrass. I'm open to almost any genre another person might want to play, though I see some potential roadblocks: I don't think I'm a good fit for serious metal, mainstream country, sugary pop, or any genre requiring a high degree of musical virtuosity like jazz or Klezmer (or serious metal). I don't think I have much to contribute to a fully electronic sound, either. That's all potentially malleable, though. I'm most interested in collaboration, so who knows? Maybe I could contribute somehow to an EDM metal free-jazz klezmer collective.

What would this band need? Attitude! Flexibility! Desire to do musical things, probably at a distance! More music-specifically: Bass, lead guitar, keyboards, drums (OMG so much this; drummers are precious unto all gods of all religions), strings, and Way Better Singing come to mind. DJ stylings or beats or electronic stuff I don't understand? Sure, why not? Experimental stuff that makes Bjork seem like Britney Spears? Maybe! Again, I'm more interested in music collaboration than anything else.

Kind of Important: I don't see this happening except as a "sending tracks back and forth" type thing, so everyone involved needs to be able to record their stuff as a track on top of (and separate from, but in time with) whatever already exists. This isn't necessarily too difficult or expensive. If you're interested but this is the sticking point, ask me questions and I'll tell you what I know and/or search for answers.

Other things

I guess I should say that some basic musicality would be helpful, though (a) my music reading sucks so bad it's embarrassing, and (b) I've been in a couple of cover bands featuring musicians who didn't know what "notes" were, couldn't keep a rhythm, couldn't play their instruments at first, and couldn't sing on key. Those bands were (one still is) delightful for me; the experience just becomes something a bit different from the usual. It becomes partly about supporting those members in their growth. I also know my musical skills are very weak compared to a lot of other musicians, and sometimes I'm the person being nurtured and helped along.

If you care about the music being heard by people who are not in the band, then it might help if you have literally any idea how to do "marketing" or "PR". If you don't care, then ignore the previous sentence.

A Mastodon post seems like very ineffective way to create a band, which kind of suits me just fine, right now. I'm a somewhat busy person thinking of yet more things I'd love to do. If something happens from this invitation, I'm open to it. If not, I'll just spend more time doing research.

After all the negative info above, remember the most important thing: I have a cool band name in mind. I don't rule out someone having a better one, but this one is really pretty good. You might think the name has to do with science or research or stats or psych, but you would be wrong. I have cool band names like that, but this one is better.

#JoinABand #band #rockmusic #musicians

I'm a fair bit brighter this morning.
A decent night has helped. I even got woken up by my alarm clock - almost unheard of in recent times!

Nothing specific planned for today, so I shall spend some of the time screaming into a convenient void.

Whichever void you're looking into, screaming or not, imagine it to be bright and cheerful.

#Today

@Wen @friendsofpollok In a survey, 59% said they don’t boost images without alt text. A lot of people won’t even favorite them. Failing to add alt text is self-defeating as well as making life more difficult for blind people.

I don’t follow many people. I’m very intentional about how I use social media because low spoons :spoonie2:

But, based on bios and photos, I’ve realised that I follow only one or two Black people.

That’s not okay.

Please boost Black creators and recommend people I should follow. I'm also actively looking. I need to do better.

EDIT: Reposted because I realised having this post as followers only is part of the problem.