Ben Lamb

Excited for 2022…

💥BREAKING NEWS💥 @RobertJenrick has defected to @TheGreenParty following their win in Gorton and Denton. Jenrick is alleged to have justified his second defection in as many months by telling voters: “I’ve always been a vegan.”

A reminder that when I interviewed Boris Johnson a year after he left office and challenged him on the sexual assault scandal that caused his downfall, this was his response: a snore

I think that if you’re going to write a piece in the Times urging the government to use and boost more AI, the fact that you are paid by a major AI company should be in the first sentence, or at least first paragraph. I also think that the best scenario for AI is that it destroys millions of jobs with the prosperity, dignity and community that goes with them. The worst scenario is the destruction of the human race - a fear openly expressed by an increasing number of senior and experienced AI engineers who are leaving the industry. And somewhere in between a myriad of horrors such as yet more screen learning and screen addiction for our children. But I do see that it will make rich men even richer. And that’s the most important thing of course.

Big questions for Deutsche Bank over the Epstein scandal - especially if it’s true that they fired a female staffer who raised concerns over him

Makes the decision to push for a known Epstein associate as ambassador all the more curious…

The WSJ newsroom agreed to take an AI vending machine. Then they declared psychological warfare on it.

I went to Denmark to meet the Beyoncé of knitting. My favourite commission so far (and thanks to associate producer/second camera operator @therestis_ who came along for the ride) 🧶

taylor swift doing a carrie coon bertha russell impression on national television the gilded age hive we have NEVER BEEN MORE UP

Strange things happen to creativity at dusk and dawn, hence so many writers work in the early morning or late at night. The edges of the day are thin places, the conscious mind is not fully awake and the subconscious can bleed through, Arthur Koestler called it "the marshy shore"

Today I saw the face of what we’ve become: and it was buried in trash. It was after the hospital. My hands still smelled of blood and iodine, as if I had just pulled death out of someone’s lungs. I stepped into the street not as a man walks, but as a shadow stumbles: worn, faceless, erased. And then I saw them. In the middle of the road. Six souls. A family. Huddled together, not at the edge where the damned usually die, but in the heart of the road; as if they had taken position at the altar of some invisible God who no longer answers. I should have turned away. But curiosity is a wicked thing. It’s not wonder; it’s hunger. And sometimes, it eats you alive. I walked toward them. They were quiet. Too quiet. A circle of bones and breath. And there it was. A meal. Or what I thought was a meal. A miracle, maybe, for a second. But no. It wasn’t food. It was garbage. A pile of trash. Stinking. Festering. A graveyard of wrappers and waste. And from that grave, they had scraped a few strands of spaghetti: cold, sticky, clinging to dirt as if ashamed to be eaten. And then I saw him. The father. With hands no longer hands, but trembling instruments of despair. He reached into the trash and lifted the food: not to eat, no, but to feed. He fed it to his daughter. A little girl. Her eyes were too large for her face. Her lips, cracked. Her dress, torn like she had fallen through history itself. And he fed her garbage, with love. With tenderness. As if it were soup. As if it were gold. He held it delicately. Lifted it to her lips like a holy offering. And she took it. She chewed slowly. She smiled. And I… I shattered. Because in that moment, the universe reversed. The sacred became foul. The foul became sacred. And I was no longer a witness; I was a criminal. How dare I exist? How dare I walk upright while that child eats from the mouth of death? I did nothing. I stood there, paralyzed by the weight of my own uselessness. I, who have words, hands, and breath, did nothing. And worse: I walked away. But no, that’s a lie. I never left. I am still there. #GazaGenocide

Henri-Edmond Cross (1856 – 1910) French artist, neo-impressionist, The Beach at Saint-Clair, 1896, oil on canvas.

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Extra extra! #TheGildedAge

@juliamacfarlane Let’s see what happens next 😉

She’s a lucky gal…! @therestis_

Joseph Campbell, what a passage

me after watching an episode of gilded age, realising I now have to wait another week to see the next one

Orson Welles, one my favourite interviews ever

"The Gilded Age" Season 3 premiere earned 2.7 million viewers in its first three days of availability. That marks a 27% increase from the Season 2 premiere and a 30% increase from Season 1's pilot. variety.com/2025/tv/news/t…

Rumor has it Mrs. Astor personally approved this guest list. #TheGildedAge