Phlegmatic

A useful summary of how many types of people disapprove of Pokemon Go. (Christians, muslims, moral guardians, leftards, gaming purists, conspiracy theorists, nanny-statists, more leftards, SJWs, puritans…)

Remember when the Democratic National Convention used a photo of Russian warships by mistake? No? That's because it got very little coverage over here.

I love these Game of Thrones posters that HBO did. One per episode (almost)!

The plot of all three major Tolkien works in a single haiku.

Pretty much how I feel about both babies and cats.

The IMF was wrong and I was right. (I feel smug.)

Some clever statistical analysis of the EU referendum.

"How did the language of politics get so toxic?"

Considering the impact of cheaper Sterling.

Clare Short is responsible for a lot of the bad things that have happened in Zimbabwe.

The latest target of the PC police - Gilbert & Sullivan.

"Controversy as Chester Zoo opens 'Wrexham Scally Enclosure'". (I should point out that Homo Wrexhamius Scalliensis Chavus is pretty much confined to the southern part of Wrexham, not the nice bit where I’m from…)

Why Gandhi is such an asshole in Civilisation.

The Curious Case of the (Medieval) Weapon that Didn't Exist

Why you can't just have more quantitative easing to get rid of the national debt.

This is not a 512gb microSD card.

The worst football kits of all time. They’re all bad, but Colorado, seriously…?

This month's best headline is from an astronomy website.

"A lousy, stupid, no good, bad, law is being proposed."

Star Wars Episode IV in a single image. (OK, it’s a very big image, but still…)

Minimalist, anonymous rooms are probably not a good place to do teamwork.

"We all owe a significant debt to Richard Murphy." No, really.

I'm an only child, so I can't really relate to this. Nevertheless I thought it was a sweet film about growing up being “Player Two”.

Woman accidentally joins search party looking for herself.

Today's most widely misinterpreted piece of economics, from the IMF. There are two arguments put forward in the paper. The first is that there are risks associated with capital account liberalisation (allowing money into and out of the country with less regulation). The second is that although high public debt is bad for growth and welfare, for countries with excellent records of debt repayment, like the US, the UK and Germany, a “credible medium-term fiscal consolidation” makes more sense than a “fiscal noose today”. In other words, slowly bringing down debt as a percentage of GDP, not slashing everything to balance the budget as soon as possible. Now that’s pretty much what the UK’s current fiscal policy is. Still I suppose “IMF economists broadly agree with George Osborne” isn’t quite as good a headline as “You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within”. Seriously, this is a paper that says “There is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda. The expansion of global trade has rescued millions from abject poverty. Foreign direct investment has often been a way to transfer technology and know-how to developing economies. Privatization of state-owned enterprises has in many instances led to more efficient provision of services and lowered the fiscal burden on governments”… and Facebook (and one of our less reputable newspapers) is full of idiots claiming that “we are witnessing the death of neoliberalism”.­

I absolutely love this series of paintings of mechs attacking early 20th century east european peasants.

The other day an RAF Chinook with a distinctive bright red tail flew right past my window. (We're high on the side of a hill and they often fly low up the river.) Turns out it was a special paint scheme for the 100th anniversary of the squadron. (Aren’t Chinooks cool? You can keep your Apaches and your Lynxes and your Merlins.)

First edition King James Bible from 1611 found in cupboard in Wrexham Parish Church. (Thanks to pellegrina.)

I didn't know that a Welshman invented packet switching.

More evidence emerges of Corbyn and McDonnell's close links with the IRA.

Scenes from the Emu War of 1932.

"Children who play video games twice a day are less likely to achieve five good GCSE grades". (Or possibly kids who don’t bother revising, and go and do fun things instead, like playing video games, are less likely to get good grades than kids who revise more. Do you think…?)

Labour MPs aren't happy at the moment. ( I particularly liked one anonymous Labour MP’s description of communist Corbyn supporter Richard Burgon as “a fucking dickhead” and Ian Austin MP’s advice to Corbyn that he “should start acting like the Leader of the Opposition and not like a student union president”.)

Hipster Hitler - a webcomic

The Sci-Fi Airshow

Calling the new Shadow Chancellor a "nutjob" is apparently not allowed. I can think of plenty of other things to call him, but I’m guessing they’re not allowed either…

Is it really worth spending £11million per pylon to put power cables underground?

"Dear Self-Published Author: Do NOT Write Four Books a Year"...

...unless you want to make money our of writing, or get better at it.

What happens if you pour gallium on an iPhone?

It's very easy to take the piss out of Richard Murphy, so if you're going to do it, it has to be at least as funny as this.

The World's Most Influential Video Game.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by this "fucking malarkey".

Former Bank of England macroeconomist on "People's Quantitative Easing".

That embarrassing moment when everyone finds out you had a fling with the man who is now your boss back in the 1970s.

Andros Townsend's girlfriend hilariously mistakes Football Manager screenshot for real life.

Really, really bad eyebrows.

Social Justice Warios

How to get rich from tidal energy.

How come Jeremy Paxman is allowed to ask tough questions but Kay Burley isn't?

The Pecking Disorder

Tblisi flooded. Zoo animals escape. Hilarity (and some terror) ensues.

Remember last month when New York was underwater? No?

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is confused between correlation and causation.

What causes inequality?

Good questions to ask in a job interview.

The hell of being born trans class.

61 deaths in "Game of Thrones" plus percentage chance to return for each. (This is spectacularly wrong for at least one person.)

American Gothic 2015

If Peanuts featured Game of Thrones quotes.

Worried that you might avoid tax? This helpful guide shows you how to avoid avoiding tax.

Does going to court to change your dead millionaire father's will so you pay less inheritance tax count as "avoiding tax"?

Interesting reviews of all the Gollancz SF Masterworks so far.

5 Misconceptions About #GamerGate and the Truth Behind the Myths

Five Actors Who Almost Played Aragorn (Russell Crowe?)

Whatever happened to Football Manager legend Freddy Adu?

No, unemployment is not the "underlying cause" of ISIS.

"Why are people in Scotland saying I murdered someone called Lucy?"

UKIP Cornwall's website gives Cornish web designers a bad name.

The latest SJW idiocy in SF / Fantasy literature.

I miss 'The Thick of It'. Luckily Green Party leader Natalie Bennett can easily fill the 'incompetent politician gives car crash interview' hole...

The appalling compensation for those people imprisoned through a miscarriage of justice.

It's really cold in New York at the moment.

Evidence used by Henry VIII to support the break with Rome turns up in a library not far from us.

Why we shouldn't clamp down on zero-hour contracts.

Brilliant new Blade Runner theory about Deckard, Rachael...and Gaff.

Scotland to be covered in tinfoil.

You bake. You roleplay. You NEED this. Now.

A Conservative - Labour coalition in 2015 is more plausible than you think.

How to complete Snake.

Trying to explain the American academic jobs market.

Is getting milk delivered by a milkman really so unusual? I mean we can get it in a tiny sub-village in Cornwall that doesn't have mains gas or streetlights.

Can you name a nation that became rich with statist policies? Can you name a nation with interventionism and big government that is out-performing a similar nation with free markets and small government?

Five great football derbies of the world that you might not know about.

This is a very effective way to liven up what appears to be quite a tame rollercoaster.

How to win at Rock, Paper, Scissors. (By the way, did you know that Rock, Paper, Scissors was the very first roleplaying game combat system, in Dave Arneson’s pre-D&D Blackmoor campaign?)

How big a snob is Vince Cable?

The Daily Mail (i.e. the newspaper) and MailOnline (the website) are very different. And to prove it, just look who MailOnline have hired to be 'Editor-at-Large (US)'.