Emperor

There comes a point at Glastonbury 2024 where it becomes easier to give up about a mile away from the stage.

Much like Sugababes’ overcrowded set, the grouchy, nostalgic pop-punk queen Avril Lavigne is one of the festival’s must-see acts, yet is shoved on a too-small stage in front of an overwhelming sea of people. Janelle Monae, over on the Pyramid Stage at the exact same time, is the unlucky recipient of poor planning – a genius pop star performing to a barely-there crowd. It’s not great.

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This is a brilliant show, but Glastonbury must learn lessons from a year that has vastly underestimated the appeal of pop nostalgia, and overestimated the interest in many performing over at the Pyramid.

J.K. Rowling is embroiled in a fresh row with another Harry Potter actor over transgender rights.

Following exchanges of fire with Daniel Radcliffe and others, Rowling has blasted David Tennant after the Goblet of Fire star voiced strident views on those who speak out against trans rights.

During an appearance at the British LGBT Awards over the weekend, he called on British equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to “shut up” after she advocated for banning trans women from entering women’s toilets and sports teams.

In an interview at the same event, Tennant called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”

Earlier in the week, Rowling branded people like Tennant the “gender Taliban.” In posts on X (once Twitter) on Friday, she expanded her comments to address Tennant’s “wrong side of history” quote.

Rowling wrote: “This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care, the nurses currently suing their health trust for making them change in front of a man, girls and women losing sporting opportunities to males and female prisoners incarcerated with convicted sex offenders.”

She added: “For a man who’s supposedly a model of compassion and tolerance, he sure does want a lot of people to cease to exist.”

Previously.

Britain's fourth-biggest household energy supplier is lining up bankers to explore options including bringing in a new investor or a sale, 15 years after it launched in a bid to challenge the industry's oligopoly.

Sky News has learnt that OVO Group, which was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick, is close to hiring Rothschild to assist with a strategic review of the business.

City sources said this weekend that a range of possibilities would be considered during the process, which is expected to take several months.

These are likely to include a refinancing - with talks already underway about OVO's existing borrowings - as well as issuing new shares to prospective investors, or a partial or full sale by some of the company's shareholders.

An outright sale of the business is considered by insiders to be unlikely at this point, but is expected to be explored as part of the strategic review.

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Key to OVO's valuation will be the growth of its technology platform, Kaluza, which was set up to license its software to other energy suppliers, and provides customers with smart electric vehicle charging and heat pumps.

OVO recently announced that AGL Energy, one of Australia's biggest energy suppliers, had bought a 20% stake in Kaluza at a $500m (£395m) valuation.

Kaluza is understood to be exploring further expansion opportunities in Europe, Japan and the US.

OVO has also entered the electric vehicle car charging sector under the brand Charge Anywhere, adding 34,000 public charging points across the UK.

In 2022, OVO Group made an unadjusted loss of £1.3bn, which it blamed on a decline in the value of energy it had bought in advance to meet future supply commitments.

It said this had "no cash impact" in a corporate filing, and that this value would rise as customers used the energy it had bought.

Cyndi Lauper’s return to Glastonbury was beset by sound problems that left the audience struggling to hear her vocals.

For the first few songs, the star’s voice was drowned out by rumbling bass. When fans could hear, she seemed to be struggling to find her pitch and timing -particularly on a wayward version of Rocking Chair.

The issues appeared to have been resolved by the time she got to the power ballad I Drove All Night, with her voice suddenly resonant and powerful in the mid-afternoon sun.

But she faltered again on Time After Time, with the delivery on one of her earliest hits from 1984 lagging behind the band - suggesting she was having trouble with her in-ear monitors.

At times, the singer appeared to be in dispute with members of the production team by the side of the stage.

Contains spoilers for The Acolyte episode 5.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14030641

Sir Grumpus L Shorticus has been named as the Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate for Ynys Môn.

Describing himself as ‘Half Man Half Biscuit’ Sir Grumpus is one of 22 Monster Raving Loony candidates standing across the UK for the Westminster Parliamentary election on 4th July.

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Sir Grumpus’ key policies include creating a unique time zone for Wales, building a third Menai crossing …. From Dublin and deporting illegal Grey Squirrels to Rwanda.

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Sir Grumpus L Shorticus’s SIX-STEP Plan for Ynys Môn

1. A UNIQUE TIME ZONE FOR WALES – Reduce the hour from 60 minutes to 40, fully reversing the 20mph speed limits back to what they were without the cost of changing all the signs – again; and creating a whole new industry in manufacturing Welsh time pieces.

2. BUILD THE 3RD CROSSING – FROM DUBLIN – But fiscal stewardship is key, so a return crossing will only be built when public finances allow.

3. GREY SQUIRRELS ENTERING ANGLESEY ILLEGALLY WILL BE SENT TO RWANDA – Badgers, to their county of origin.

4. YNYS MÔN TO RE-JOIN THE EU – Build Wylfa B, reverse the generated power into the wind-farms which would then propel Anglesey to an EU country of choice.

5. A PRIVATE MEMBER’S BILL TO MAKE THE MISUSE OR OMISSION OF APOSTROPHE’S A CRIMINAL OFFENCE – Improper grammar in text messages will also incur a Fixed Penalty, increasing Treasury revenues a trillion-fold – an App to be developed to make automatic payment on hitting ‘Send’.

6. A FLEXIBLE APPROACH TO POLITICS – These pledges are sincerely held beliefs and promises, but may be changed on a whim.

7. IMPROVE MATHS EDUCATION FOR ADULTS

Sir Grumpus L Shorticus has been named as the Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate for Ynys Môn.

Describing himself as ‘Half Man Half Biscuit’ Sir Grumpus is one of 22 Monster Raving Loony candidates standing across the UK for the Westminster Parliamentary election on 4th July.

...

Sir Grumpus’ key policies include creating a unique time zone for Wales, building a third Menai crossing …. From Dublin and deporting illegal Grey Squirrels to Rwanda.

...

Sir Grumpus L Shorticus’s SIX-STEP Plan for Ynys Môn

1. A UNIQUE TIME ZONE FOR WALES – Reduce the hour from 60 minutes to 40, fully reversing the 20mph speed limits back to what they were without the cost of changing all the signs – again; and creating a whole new industry in manufacturing Welsh time pieces.

2. BUILD THE 3RD CROSSING – FROM DUBLIN – But fiscal stewardship is key, so a return crossing will only be built when public finances allow.

3. GREY SQUIRRELS ENTERING ANGLESEY ILLEGALLY WILL BE SENT TO RWANDA – Badgers, to their county of origin.

4. YNYS MÔN TO RE-JOIN THE EU – Build Wylfa B, reverse the generated power into the wind-farms which would then propel Anglesey to an EU country of choice.

5. A PRIVATE MEMBER’S BILL TO MAKE THE MISUSE OR OMISSION OF APOSTROPHE’S A CRIMINAL OFFENCE – Improper grammar in text messages will also incur a Fixed Penalty, increasing Treasury revenues a trillion-fold – an App to be developed to make automatic payment on hitting ‘Send’.

6. A FLEXIBLE APPROACH TO POLITICS – These pledges are sincerely held beliefs and promises, but may be changed on a whim.

7. IMPROVE MATHS EDUCATION FOR ADULTS

A Tory student group has apologised after leaked footage showed them dancing to a Nazi marching song.

The Warwick University Conservative Association asked the DJ at a gathering following their annual “chairman’s dinner” to play Erika, a song composed in 1938 by Nazi soldier Herms Niel.

In a leaked video published by The Times, students can be seen dancing and laughing to the song before one member spots the camera and says: “Don’t film!”

The students are also accused of chanting “Kill the Hughs” – substituting the word “Jews” for the name of their outgoing association chairman Hugh Herring.

Reports suggest they also said: “Heil the chairman”.

They are:

1. Why Did Farage Lie About Meeting the Russian Ambassador?
2. How Could Farage Not Have Known About Arron Banks’ Multiple Visits to the Russian Embassy During the Brexit Campaign?
3. What Did Farage Know of the Russian Hacking of the Clinton Campaign?
4. How Could Farage be Blind to Trump and Steve Bannon’s Backing for Russia?
5. Why Did Farage Hide the Assessment that his Leave.EU Campaign Funder was an “Agent of Russian Influence?”

See also:

• Previous thread on Russian interference in the current General Election
• Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum on Wikipedia, which seems well-written and properly sourced

Claims of Russian interference in the general election campaign are "gravely concerning", the deputy prime minister has said.

Mr Dowden told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that Moscow allegedly using Facebook pages to spread support for Nigel Farage "is a classic example from the Russian playbook".

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) says it has been monitoring five co-ordinated Facebook pages which have been spouting Kremlin talking points, with some posting in support of Reform UK.

Mr Dowden, who has called the ABC report "gravely concerning", told Sky News: "This is something that I've warned about for some time.

"There is a threat in all elections, and indeed we see it in this election, from hostile state actors seeking to influence the outcome of the election campaign.

"Russia is a prime example of this and this is a classic example from the Russian playbook."

He added that this was a "low-level use of bots".

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The broadcaster also reportedly found most of the administrators for each page are based in Nigeria, which is a significant connection as previous online Russian propaganda networks were found to have been operating from Africa.

The reports come after Mr Farage faced a backlash for saying he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Farage called it "cobblers" to claim bots generated by foreign state actors could interfere with the election outcome - as he launched a personal attack on Mr Dowden.

I may be preaching to the converted on this but I was looking to solve two problems:

• Being able to chuck down a quick note in Obsidian on mobile which can take far too long to open. I'd tried suggested solutions like Loqseq but it still felt a bit clunky.
• Import a webpage as markdown on mobile

The latter requirement took me to Zettel Notes and then I discovered that you can just add your Obsidian archive to it and so you also have Mobile Quick Capture too, as the post link says:

Zettel Notes checks a lot of boxes. If you need a more flexible solution for Quick Capture, and an open-source one at that, check out Zettel Notes.

Zettel Notes is impressively flexible and versatile. It supports Markdown, synchronization through many different platforms, all forms of media including audio and video, keyboard shortcuts, properties, templates, and much more.

If you want an app that rivals even Obsidian in features, then Zettel Notes may be for you.

With a little bit of setup, it also makes a great quick capture app. All you have to do is install it, configure it to your Obsidian folder, and you’re off to the races!

I did notice a few oddities in setting it up: it’s not set up perfectly for Obsidian, so you may have to fine tune it a bit to get it working like you want. See the documentation for details.

Zettel Notes is not as easy to set up as Fleeting Notes, but it is the swiss army knife of note taking on Android. If you’re serious about Quick Capture, I recommend giving it a try.

Pros:

Quick startup

• Highly configurable
• Can do almost anything you could want
• Good privacy policy

Cons:

• Harder to setup initially
• More of a learning curve

I haven't noticed too many downsides and while I wasn't previously prepared to fully commit to Obsidian in my note-taking app journey (having started with Evernote many years ago), Zettel Notes has helped seal the deal. It's already speeding up my note-taking on the go and just become my go-to app for markdown files. I can then switch to Obsidian when I need all the bells and whistles.