Sign in

Alistair

@funkyalchemist.bsky.social
196 followers 274 following 593 posts

Drawer, makerspace overlord and inveterate tinkerer. Regular forays into baking and cooking

PostsRepliesMedia
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Trump, when asked about the question of superintelligence, picked soup www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Trump super intelligence: Will the president’s attempt to rebrand AI work?
Some people close to the president have started to use the term but experts say it is unlikely to catch on.
000
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Rebranding AI as SI makes sense once you realise the new acronym stands for Stolen IP
000
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I have to give some credit to the person at Sky TV who asked “what if a terrible calamity occurred?” and set up a scenario where Michael Gove was given a position of authority again
000
Reposted by Alistair
Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Most housing benefit goes to private landlords. A big chunk of universal credit subsidises underpayed workers. The so-called welfare bill could be seriously reduced by fixing these underlying issues, not cutting actual welfare.
1344178
Reposted by Alistair
Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
180140506470
Reposted by Alistair
Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This German comedy sketch (with English subtitles) perfectly captures so much of what is going on right now in the UK, the US, and across Europe. "Playing the 'Nazi Card' in the Third Reich", by Browser Ballett.
5330031271
Reposted by Alistair
RN ship losses @rnshiplosses.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
While looking for something else in the Imperial War Museum's online collections I found this 1943 painting by (Lt-Cdr) James Yunge-Bateman: 'The Outside Viewing-tank : Directorate of Camouflage, Naval Section'. Somewhat off-topic for me, but too appealing not to post. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 2759).
James Yunge-Bateman, 'The Outside Viewing-tank : Directorate of Camouflage, Naval Section' (1943). Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM ART LD 2759). Image: a young bespectacled woman leans into the composition from the left with her hands submerged in a water tank. The viewing-tank appears to be on the roof of a building as there is a blue sky with clouds and the green dome of a building in the background. A camouflaged model of an aircraft carrier floats on the water and a pair of binoculars sit on the edge of the tank, in the right foreground. (ALT text description from the IWM.)
49725
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Auction of one of my bits of drawn nonsense made yesterday benefiting the RNLI ebay.io/m/C9T8Nc
Pop up artist made book with 26 hand drawn portraits in red and blue pencil
111
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Let’s face it, the only prompt and decisive response we’re ever likely to see from the Police at a far right demo is the setting up of a recruitment stand
000
Reposted by Alistair
Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
If this wasn't a right wing group, they'd be proscribed as a terrorist organisation by next week. You know it, I know it. It's deeply shocking, what has happened to ostensibly centrist British politics.
310931
Reposted by Alistair
Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 04/09/2026
This Finnish guy has been teaching himself Sumerian, and sent a cuneiform tablet to the British Museum to check his progress. They just emailed him that they've sent him something in the post. I'm now thrilled and excited for a total stranger! Clay tablet mail! www.reddit.com/r/Cuneiform/...
a photo of a hand holding a cuneiform tablet
11554901487
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My lowest stakes conspiracy theory is that 2nd class post costs the Royal Mail more than 1st as the system is all set up for 1st and that the additional processing and logistics of holding onto it for an extra day is needless hassle and cost for the sake of making 1st seem like a premium proposition
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Good, if the Russians want to experience elite level cross country skiing and marksmanship they can try invading Finland again
030
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Hovis make the best Digestives. McVities be damned
110
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
PhDon’t
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Every single episode of Question Time
000
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
UK media readers can be reassured that the market for creepy, offensive and needlessly contrarian bullshit opinion pieces will be unaffected due to massive oversupply capacity
010
Reposted by Alistair
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Good grief, this hits home.
324138024877
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Two fantastical flower drawings in watercolour - from an exercise in Drawing is Free’s monthly art workbook
A red & yellow abstract based on the idea of a flowerBlue and pink abstract based on the idea of a flower
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
I made a little thing - a little free art gallery tucked just inside the doorway of A Touch of Enchantment Gift Shop in Cladach above the free library. Folks can take art, contribute their own & hopefully be inspired by the island
040
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Is one of them “Get paid £13million last year” Charlie? Any chance that that one financial trick you use might help readers? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
I run the UK's biggest bank, here are five ways to manage your money
The CEO of Lloyds Bank talks about how to save, budget, avoid scams and manage money in a relationship.
020
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Ah, yes. The true meaning of Christmas
Festive themed napkin showing a cartoon robin perching on the til of a reindeer. Below them is text “I’m home compostable”
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I thought I had hit peak middle aged but today found myself on a Sunday morning first in the queue waiting for the council recycling centre gates to open. New boundless vistas of mundanity have opened to me
120
Reposted by Alistair
Peter Beaumont @petersbeaumont1.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
This is what a pogrom looks like: men in masks coming to drive you from your home. This is a collective failure of our political and media class because we did not have the courage to say no, and because too many were allowed to embrace this without shame
3425341052
Reposted by Alistair
juux @juux.com · 07/06/2026
Spotted at the Bolivia v Scotland match
INFANTINO IS A FANNY sign in the crowd
1032179
Reposted by Alistair
Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Politicians skirt around it. The media skirts around it. But, we have a very sinister far right, racist problem in the UK. Reform and Restore… two cheeks of the same hideous arse… flooding the zone with their hate, their lies and their howling inadequacy. If they’re our future, we’re done for.
69940270
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Tony Blair thinks the UK should closely align itself with the policy decisions of a man who only survived the COVID years because he was outsmarted by the childproof caps on his bottles of bleach #fuckofftony #andthenfuckoffsomemore
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Look what finally made it to Arran! @mygoditsraining.bsky.social’s new book. 2nd image from the acknowledgements nails my perfect mode of work - discuss ideas, lob others in, saunter off before the hard work starts & still get a namecheck and some credit
Book, the survivor by Andrew Reid with a bucolic bay, castle and mountain as a backdrop. Entirely at odds with the contentText “To Alistair, my brother, for being a constant sounding board for every dumb idea I have, and all the suggestions for far better ones that I invariably steal from you.”
020
Reposted by Alistair
Tom Ewing @tomewing.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
2026 Me: Hey 1996 me, in 30 years time you'll be furious at everything Tony Blair says and think John Major makes some pretty sensible points 1996 Me: Fuck, so I'm doomed to become more conservative as I get older 2026 Me: Well not exactly
14994258
Reposted by Alistair
Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Climate change is real and it's happening and it's only going to get worse until everyone wakes the fuck up. By far the biggest threat to us all. We don't have another planet we can go to.
2142916616
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
My portraits from a Draw Each Other session over Zoom. Each 15 min
Drawing in red pencil on white paper. A portrait of a manDrawing in red pencil on white paper. A portrait of a womanDrawing in red pencil on white paper. A portrait of a womanDrawing in red pencil on white paper. A portrait of a woman
100
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
My 4 pictures picked out for the bank holiday weekend Arran Visual Arts exhibition
A drawing in a grey square frame of a bearded grizzled man. White paper with multicoloured pencilA black pen drawing of a mother and child drawn as a continuous blind line. Image is framed in a square black frame Framed portrait drawn in blue pencil and chalk on a brown paper bagGod knows, just an oddity
121
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
There is no respect for the old ways. I just washed the car and not one person walked by and said “When you’re done with that you can do mine”. We used to be a proper country
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Fresh circle of hell now available - local pub has decided that having to open a webpage via QR code to access the menu isn’t faff and annoying enough and now asks you to interact with an AI chatbot 🤢
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Your regular reminder that even a survey that didn‘t ask about Richard Dawkins got the answer that scientists say he is full of shit www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
independent.co.uk
British scientists really, really dislike Richard Dawkins, new study discover
The investigation into science's public image didn't even ask about the atheist professor, but it got an answer anyway
151
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
My Mum treated herself to some sketchbooks and pencils to start drawing so we went out and about for an hour or so yesterday in search of likely spots. My sketches while we sat - the marker stone is www.arranartsheritagetrail.com/placemarkers... relating to Sir David Young Cameron
Blind contour pencil drawing on white paper of a treeline, mountains and cloud accented with blue marker penCharcoal drawing on paper of a sandstone marker carved with the number 20 and word Cameron. Some grass and weeds grow around the baseSimplified drawing of Holy Isle off Lamlash, Arran in red and blue coloured pencil and charcoal. The island sits high in the image and the foreground suggests a rocky beach
031
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Feathers McGraw gets everywhere
000
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
OK, now that paper is a very cool read
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Another Goat Fell scrawl
Simple drawing of the very top of a mountain shaded in grey against white paper
010
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Dundonald Castle from the visitor centre
Sketch in red pencil of Dundonald Castle, Ayrshire
072
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
This is the kind of thing that happens when I have and idle thought and slightly too much time available. Pencils4tea online live portrait session, ~3min per pose
020
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
5 min landscape sketch acrylic marker and brush pen
Blue and green sketch of a hillside and shadowed mountains
031
Reposted by Alistair
womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
After living through the Nazi & atomic bomb eras, Tove Jansson writings would often encompass fearful ideas about loss of a familiar world. However she would balance this with characters who displayed kindness & community, showing goodness even in the darkest times #BookArtWeek
Illustration featuring a comet about to land on a rocky landscape as two hippo like creatures watch from the right
21004221
Reposted by Alistair
NorseInCork @norseincork.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Did some readings for this little BBC piece on extinct English pronouns www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy
Tales of love and adventure from 1,000 years ago reveal a dazzling range of now-extinct English pronouns. They capture something unique about how people once thought about "two-ness".
523278
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Gosh! Goatfell sketched in a gush of gouache
Expressive sketch of Goatfell mountain on Arran viewed from the Brodick side. The hill fills the frame and is painted on broad grey toned strokes
071
Reposted by Alistair
Andrew Reid @mygoditsraining.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
A great review of The Survivor from Oline at Shelf Awareness... www.shelf-awareness.com/readers/2026...
shelf-awareness.com
The Survivor
Intense fear and an evocative atmosphere drive the relentless plot of Andrew Reid's The Survivor as a young man grapples with one of the worst
011
Reposted by Alistair
Seb Downie-Blackwell @downieseb.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Mosley... Mosley... Rings a bell.... Oh THAT Mosley. Cannon. Immediately.
2287
Reposted by Alistair
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Fat Man and Little Boy in 1945 referred to the two types of A-bomb, in 2026 they are descriptors of the US president’s physical and mental states
021
Reposted by Alistair
Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
University of Oxford : maximising oil and gas extraction here would only save UK households up to £82 (€95) per year. A UK fully powered by renewable energy, would save households up to £441 (€510) a year on energy bills. www.euronews.com/2026/03/27/e...
euronews.com
UK to give homes ‘free energy’ instead of turning off wind turbines
Europe’s outdated and under-invested energy grid means huge amounts of renewable energy are wasted every year.
622612990
Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
In the immortal words of the very mortal Julius Ceasar “καὶ σύ, τέκbro”
000