Schroedingers_Cat

Druidic neo-pagan (maybe), Christian, Quaker, software developer, anarchist, Green, and many other things I am not very good at.

He/Him. Also respond to it/Oi/Shut up you idiot.

#Nobridge #Nothreads #Nofascists

Header image: Seascape sunset.
Avatar: A cat above a message that says "Schroedingers cat is " and then an image with the words "alive" and "dead" combined.

Pronouns: Him/His

Public Key

npub1k4jqwfds9x95chsqztpcwths88zhwnfaehv9clehf0jrkla4flzsn7gvpm

NIP-05 Address

steveclough_at_metalhead.club@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst2eq8ykcznz6vtcqp9su89mcrn3thf57umkzu0um5hepm0765l3gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntvlvh8w

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1k4jqwfds9x95chsqztpcwths88zhwnfaehv9clehf0jrkla4flzsn7gvpm

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Last Notes

2026-05-06 14:36:02 UTC

I am getting heartily sick of the neediness of business. "Please give us feedback". "Tell us how we did".
I have no idea how good this product I bought a week ago is - it will take a month or more to know.
If my vets visit was not acceptable, I would have said at the time. Not in an anonymous questionnaire later.
I am not constantly recommending things to my friends. They are not constantly asking. If they ask, I will tell them the truth. But there are probably a lot of variables to account for.
You will know if I was satisfied if and when there is a repeat order. The end.

2026-02-25 09:31:15 UTC

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Agreed - an instance that is not going beyond "Is it legal" is not really doing their job.

2026-01-04 17:56:40 UTC

Why is it that nobody seems to be listening to the fact that TRUMP RAPED CHILDREN.
That should be the end of him. We all know he did. He knows he did. He should pay the penalty for it.

2025-11-23 22:29:03 UTC

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No, but I will see if I can find this.

2025-11-23 19:00:18 UTC

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In fairness, though, it is too long for what I was listening to. The others are short pieces (ok 10 minutes for Barber). Not a whole symphony.

2025-11-23 18:58:46 UTC

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I mean, I know there are many other claimants. These were the ones I know, as someone who really doesn't know classical music. I will look into this too.

2025-11-23 18:07:10 UTC

Most beautiful and poignant piece of classical music:

2025-11-21 12:34:29 UTC

When you have Alzheimers, you learn something new every day.

2025-11-12 12:55:23 UTC

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Ah yeah - sorry. I meant I don't worry specifically about things made in my country thing. I don't really bother where my things come from - I know most are made outside the UK. I don't think - for us - there is a major premium for produced in the UK products as much as there are for some other countries.

2025-11-12 12:49:18 UTC

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Personally, I don't worry about this, but I get your point. I don't mind "Made in China" things. I do mind "Made very cheaply in China" things.
The fact that I may be paying well over the odds is beside the point for me. I don't want crap.

2025-11-08 14:30:52 UTC

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"Undeliverable" the excuse of every politician who sees a good idea but doesn't have the political will to implement it.
It is usually very deliverable. It just will mean making rich people unhappy.

2025-10-30 19:27:21 UTC

"This one clever trick I learned from my Grandpa:
Kill. The Fucking. Nazis."

2025-10-25 11:28:45 UTC

I love how, in TV dramas, people can open someone elses computer and immediately find the files that they need - the pictures or the videos that are pertinent to whatever has happened.
Even I cannot find what I want on my own computer.

2025-10-17 13:59:46 UTC

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If you are not - why not? The idea is brilliant, and Kate is an amazing speaker and enthusiast for sustainable economics.
(I have heard her twice. An incredible communicator.)

2025-10-17 13:48:49 UTC

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Did you use AI to spell the first option???

2025-10-05 16:43:55 UTC

To all exiles from #BlueSky - welcome. This is a place of oddity, peculiarity, and lovely people.
It can take a little longer to find your place here, but you will, if you try. So welcome, and say hello.

2025-09-29 10:43:36 UTC

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SUrely the invisible hand of the market will handle this?

2025-09-28 10:03:04 UTC

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Are they going to build large numbers of affordable housing? No. It will be middle-class housing at middle-class prices, which is not what is needed at all.
It is seeking to solve a problem by giving money to the already wealthy. That is not an answer.

2025-09-21 17:55:46 UTC

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I had hoped that Jeremy could bring his many years of experience as a politician to bear, with the life and vitality of Zarah. To build something for the future. But it is seeming not, sadly.
Corbyn is a man of great ideas, but not a leader. He needs to be an ideas man behind a strong and charismatic leader. There might be a chance of rescuing this.
I hope so, because I am not sure what other hope we have.

2025-09-21 11:01:54 UTC

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Wymondham? There are two places with this name. And they are both pronounced differently.

2025-09-11 08:02:30 UTC

So I have just finished reading this : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Listen-Land-Speak-Journey-beneath/dp/0717192598
At the end he talks about the Potato Famine - from an Irish perspective. As someone who has survivors guilt because his family survived it.
But it wasn't famine. It was genoslaughter (as he terms it). The ENGLISH land owners sold the food because they could make more money than by feeding people.
1000s died. Whole families, communities were destroyed. Bodied were in mass graves. Because of English greed.
An entire nation traumatised. And this was less than 200 years ago - still within the cultural memory.
No wonder we want to pretend it was the potatoes fault.
1/2

2025-09-10 19:55:55 UTC

Just an interesting insight - my son works for a police force (civilian side). His forces (there are three who work together) are suffering from cash problems and are making cuts.
And yet another force - the Met, not far from us - is spending so much of their resources on arresting pensioners and peaceful demonstrators.
If there is not enough resources, maybe reducing the time and amount spent on doing stupid and useless stuff.

2025-09-05 10:00:48 UTC

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One of the few books I gave up.

2025-09-05 09:16:51 UTC

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It is difficult to quantify. And the nature of the books does make a difference.
I put Avid, because I probably do manage 20 books a year. Some of them are short and some are simple. But others are a couple of weeks reading.
And if I were to re-read War and Peace, that would be another 2 months. If I re-read Alice - as I will soon - that is 3-4 days (I read for 40 minutes or so at night mainly).
But I love reading. So Avid seems to fit me.

2025-09-01 07:58:09 UTC

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It is one of my bugbears that society is so dismissive of worn clothing. We should be able to wear it if we like it. We should be able to wear clothes with holes in if they make us feel good.
It is wrong that the only rips allowed are designer rips.

2025-08-26 08:27:34 UTC

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Yes, and I don't specifically disagree with targetting it. It is not about cultural "understanding" - I am not saying it is acceptable because it is culturally based.
It is that to target this, is to target certain cultures. It is to make "honour killing" something special, and something different from other cultures ways of forcing conformity.
Killing is already illegal.

2025-08-26 08:06:45 UTC

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I heard about that this morning, and - while I do think honour killing is terrible and needs to be stopped - it feels very - racist. Unless it will also be applied to "Christian" families who abuse their gay members. Cut them off.
OK, they rarely kill them as such. They usually pick on other gay people to beat up. But the principle is the same.
It is all religious bigotry.

2025-08-20 20:41:21 UTC

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I think the idea of helping people who have been in social housing for a long time to buy a property is good - and the properly often has to be the one the person has lived in.
But - and I think this is important - the way it was implemented was utterly wrong. It should have been done so the government pays the whole property price to the council, which should have been required to be spent on new social housing.
It was actually done deliberately to destroy the social housing provision.

2025-08-15 15:28:48 UTC

Just watching something on the Lost Gardens of Helligan.
Someone who was early in finding the hiddne gardens says they found a greenhouse with scissors hanging on a nail - untouched for 50 years. And there were so many others around once he knew to look for them.
The gardeners had mostly gone off to the war in 1941. And most did not return.
A really poignant reminder of what is lost in war. Of what is destroyed by the greed of nations.

2025-08-15 08:28:17 UTC

I grew up in the midlands, the industrial heartlands. My dad was an engineer - skilled manual work.
And what companies did around there in the 1970s-80s was deskill a lot of jobs (eventually including my dads). They got machines that could do them and cheap labour to help the machines.
They designed away the skilled work.
And so people took the work there was for significantly lower wages. This included immigrants, who were always prepared to work for semi-slave wages.
Then they sent the work overseas.
The reason there are no jobs is simple: capitalism. Not immigrants.

2025-08-07 11:39:01 UTC

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Polo shirts are good. These days, I have my look - jeans and rugby shirt or shorts and t-shirt.

2025-08-07 11:06:31 UTC

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I really don't know on this. I hated wearing uniform at school - but we all had to, so it sort of leveled people. But the cost was quite significant (we were not wealthy, but also, not poor. So we managed it for all 3 of us).
But OTOH, I didn't have much to wear other than uniform. I was a very introvert kid (you would never believe it now, would you). And I never really had a social life outside school. So I have clothes to wear, but I did actually - secretly - like not having to make decisions about what to wear.
I think my parents would have appreciated it if I could have worn jeans, as they might last longer than the uniform trousers.

2025-07-30 20:21:17 UTC

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Be grateful. You probably have encountered them, and they are fucking insane. Basically rampant capitalists who don't want to pay any tax, or support any form of government.
And they don't see the contradictions, because they are stupid.
In answer to the OP - yes anarchism - as a whole or part of a description is absolutely genuine, but you need to understand precisely what they believe. I call myself an anarchist/socialist, which is really about anti-authoritarian socialism.
Obviously, some people just use it as a posh way of saying "thug".

2025-07-27 10:26:17 UTC

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So - and I get this - those protesting immigrants have legitimate concerns about the way this country is being run. All that you say is legitimate.
And yet Palestine Action do not have legitimate concerns about the treatment of Palestinians? Are they not legitimate too?

2025-07-26 20:07:49 UTC

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The only thing he considers "first rate" is any media who licks his arse and panders to his crazed ego.
So being called fourth-rate by such an egotist means it is worth watching.

2025-07-25 20:48:15 UTC

Watching Unforgivable - a BBC drama from this week.
It is incredibly hard-hitting, dark, and honest about child sexual abuse.
With a stellar cast, which doesn't always make a difference. But this is a brilliant drama. I mean, not easy. Not even a little bit.
But wow. Superbly done. Do not even consider it if you might be triggered, because it really doesn't pull any punches.

2025-07-12 09:56:08 UTC

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I take a different view - that most of the rich have inherited money, or family wealth or at least security. Meaning they can mess up a few times and it is not a big deal.
That is the "luck" they normally have - the ability to have lost a million on unsuccessful deals, and still be able to carry on.
I think the US and the UK are remarkably similar in this.

2025-06-23 07:42:57 UTC

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I think it can work when you get used to it. And when it is not used as a gimmick, but it becomes natural.
Cannot think of good examples at the moment.

2025-06-22 20:20:30 UTC

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I think it is difficult to read, but get why it can work.

2025-06-18 09:58:56 UTC

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But, of course, they totally believe in the importance of family?
There is a level of hatred in some people (not all the home office, not all the people) that should be classified as unsuitable to work in any people-centred role.
They need treatment, not promotion.

2025-06-15 20:21:31 UTC

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Not a hope. I am a reasonably fast reader and I wouldn't read so much in that time. I would probably get through 200 pages ish in that sort of total time - but I do tend to speed up as I get into a book.
So 336 pages would be a minimum of 10 hours, more like 12.
Also, you are totally a good enough reader.

2025-06-06 20:17:31 UTC

One thing this Musk/Trump is showing us is how ridiculous the utopia from Atlas Shrugged is. This is how it would actually be - all the entitled fuckwits constantly falling out and arguing and bitching.

2025-05-31 13:54:44 UTC

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I mean, the first time in this set I have voted (the first time I have known the band/music) and you get it wrong.
*Sighs so deeply the sun goes in.*

2025-05-24 14:56:37 UTC

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I think the divisions, the stranger-ness that people do see - and you see this played on by Reform especially, but other parties as well - is actually this divide from the establishment.
So the establishment has to re-focus it elsewhere.
(and I wasn't trying to dismiss what you were saying, just building on it, and trying to understand where this comes form.)

2025-05-24 10:26:17 UTC

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I think we are becoming an island ruled by strangers. That the real strangers are those in power, those in charge.
But most people not in power are not strangers - maybe not all friends, but all together.

2025-05-18 10:57:57 UTC

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So they openly acknowledge that his drivel is unpublishable, but still accept than he can stay as President?
That someone who is this unhinged can still be in charge of the country (to the minimal extent that he is).

2025-05-17 09:14:31 UTC

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I joined the Greens decades ago - for a lot of reasons, but because they (we) do not focus policies around financial approaches, as Labour and Tories do.
But it is about a focus on the world, on the environment, on how we can keep our planet running. Not how we can keep our financial systems running. As you say, it is a vote for the planet.
OK, we are socialist in terms of so many policies. But there is still a focus on how we can exist on this planet. that is a different focus, and one I can support.

2025-05-10 17:01:09 UTC

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Thing is, he is weak against other people who are either strong or at least shouty.
It was Chamberlains problems of appeasement. And it didn't work.
Not that it is purely Starmer - we haven't had a proper strong PM for many many years.

2025-05-10 10:27:14 UTC

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I am not entirely with you - I think the elves are really important parts of the story.
But they tend to be arrogant and entitled. I am not sure they are intended to be "liked", but are intended to be "respected".

2025-04-28 21:07:50 UTC

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What strikes me is that, because it is not caused by an industry or market having problems, it is caused by self-inflicted damage to the trade routes, it will not just be a gentle recession, or a mild one - it will be incredibly harsh and deep.
And it will continue to deepen, as the whole supply line dries up, from more and more places.
And it will take years to recover. Not least because Trump has destroyed all trust in the US.

2025-04-27 15:11:05 UTC

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Prompted by you, of course, pointing out that winning is not the sole aim.
That binary Win or Lose is the trick of the main parties - they are all doing the "xxx can't win here, so vote for us instead" shtick. Because for them it is all about win or nothing.

2025-04-27 14:17:23 UTC

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Doesn't matter if they are not 100% right. No party is.
The Greens have the only right direction. And voting for them tells everyone that the move to the right is not wanted.
Politics is a dirty horrible business. Supporting a party or candidate that you have 50% agreement with is better than allowing the ones you really don't want have a say.

2025-04-21 15:10:43 UTC

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I don't sell through Amazon at all - only on Lulu. Which is a pain, but I am not supporting that monster.

2025-04-21 11:11:36 UTC

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Thank you! Hope you enjoy.

2025-04-21 10:45:20 UTC

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You clearly need my books (see my pinned toot). Real world magic. Ordinary people. lots of cynicism and humour.

2025-04-19 19:15:46 UTC

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But were there any zombies?

2025-04-08 08:07:22 UTC

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I have read stuff that is just poorly written. I would probably just ignore that and move on.
But I think books that are not working for me, books that are OK, but not my cup of tea at a specific time I am reading them - well, I might explain why they didn't hit the mark for me, so others can decide.
And I might have a rant if something is trite and totally un-novel. Because usually there are better examples for people to read.
But it is like music (or other creative exploits). I will discuss something, explain my personal reaction, without suggesting that my reaction is universal.
Unless it is completely crap music or books

2025-03-27 10:33:49 UTC

Oh no, of course politicians are not out of touch:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkngrv14myo

2025-02-28 21:24:09 UTC

Good on Zelensky walking out. But then he knows about dealing with untrustworthy dictators.
And all decent people are behind him and against Putin.

2025-02-12 11:55:29 UTC

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I think it is really improtant that these names are made public.
So they can be held to account when the reckoning comes.
And it will come.

2025-01-31 21:10:35 UTC

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I always resisted, but a few years ago, my companies rewards scheme enabled me to get a kindle for nothing, so I did. I love it.
Yes, I wish it was not an Amazon product, but I do try to get non-kindle books (as epub instead).

2025-01-30 22:09:31 UTC

I am reading about Cognative Dissonance at the moment. From a psychological perspective.
What strikes me, and I cannot yet express it in simple terms, is that this is very relevant to the Trump election.
What it is saying clearly is that if your actions and your beliefs/ideas do not match, we tend to change our beliefs and ideas, rather than accept that our actions were wrong. And we do this without realising it or thinking about it.

2025-01-29 14:58:19 UTC

Aparently, on an android phone, if you tell Gemini to "Fuck right off and take any other fucking AI off my fucking phone you pointelss piece of shit" it doesn't work.
And some of you have now tried it just to see, haven't you?

2025-01-27 22:09:48 UTC

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The point is that it has all of the problems of any other LLM system.
But it totally exposes the real reason behind all of the AI hype - to raise money. That is all it ever has been.

2025-01-14 15:24:56 UTC

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The terminology is confusing, not least becuase it is often cross-used (including by me).
AI models of various sorts would be needed for diagnosis. But they are all, in truth, models utilising large daabases of information to make appropriate (or otherwise) matches.
SO the concept does apply. They are not actually "intelligent" in any real sense.

2025-01-14 14:50:27 UTC

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In the UK at least - where this discussion started - there is quite enough pressure on the NHS.
All I am saying is that LLMs will not help the actual real problems that are currently being faced. the money that is being spent on these should go to front line services instead, and THAT would improve outcomes.

2025-01-14 14:41:32 UTC

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I am not saying it is a problem. I am saying including LLM assessment will not help with reducing clinical costs. In fact, it will do quite the opposite.

2025-01-14 14:33:50 UTC

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The problem is, an LLM could, say, identify some tumours from x-rays better than a person.
But that just means there will be more people needing treatment. So the pressure on the services will increase. Costing more money.
The only way it would reduce costs is if this medical data was used to deny people coverage for insurance (health or life).

2024-12-28 11:35:57 UTC

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Interesting - in the UK, it was a fairly common thing for families to do, so for us, it may just be a more traditional family.

2024-12-05 14:49:17 UTC

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The kind that we come to expect.
It means nothing.

2024-12-03 20:20:43 UTC

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Perfectly.

2024-12-03 11:54:29 UTC

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It is a tricky one, because for smaller parties, if they can attract one or two larger donations - of the 100K level - it can make a huge difference.
I do think they should only be allowed to take donations from UK residents. And that means where the money originates in the UK - so a donation form a UK company that happens to be the same as a donation made to that company form abroad not allowed.
I totally agree that they should be very strongly policed.
But there is a bigger question of the whole role that money is playing in our politics. We need to get it out, but that is not going to happen.

2024-11-23 15:26:44 UTC

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Strictly, objects are only really classified as UFOs, not identified.

2024-11-10 17:12:17 UTC

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Was it a c-list celebrity? They seem to do al lth eturning on of lights these days.

2024-11-06 20:13:20 UTC

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Oh, well, I had better die with my asbestos clothing then.

2024-11-06 19:21:27 UTC

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We do have velux windows, so I might be OK.
But also, a divine being who is blocked by a roof does not have a lot of my respect.

2024-11-06 19:18:49 UTC

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Hang on, he is to rule for "time, times and half a time". Maybe he has had time. So it might be less.
He should be doing time, of course.

2024-11-06 19:12:08 UTC

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We can always hope the next season has to be cut short.
Like Good Omens.

2024-11-03 18:30:34 UTC

#AhooDaryaei - the woman who protested in Iran and may have been executed - is a rock star.
Her incredibly brave stand - which she must have known would not be tolerated - makes a point. Iran is an oppresive, abusive, regime. Who should be opposed.
I long for a free world. Where no nation oppresses its people.
[ETA - I had heard that she had been executed, but also cannot substantiate this, so have updated my post]

2024-11-03 12:21:20 UTC

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Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf.
Since I Left You - Avalanches.

2024-10-14 20:22:28 UTC

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Hancock was a little before my time. And he was always - sad. Given what happened, I think that was showing in his work.
The Goodies were always my favourite from those years.

2024-10-09 18:27:31 UTC

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I should also point out that some of the other mensans, who all have high IQ results, are absolute pricks. I would far rather spend my time with you lot.

2024-10-09 18:24:06 UTC

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I took one many years ago and it showed I was (and still am) a genius. As I knew.
Yes I am a Mensan.
BUT also, they are a specific type of test that gives you a score compared to others similar to yourself. They are about how you process information and how you solve problems. So they can be useful.
But they are not an indication of how clever you are. Also, you are not an idiot. I know that from your postings.
I strongly suspect that most people I interact with will come up with a figure that is in the 90-120 range - i.e. most of you are broadly normal intelligence.

2024-10-09 18:14:34 UTC

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This is what I was going to say. They are both expressions of the same hate-filled belief.

2024-10-09 12:04:05 UTC

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Yes. No private healthcare, no private schools.

2024-10-07 13:48:39 UTC

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She rocks. If you get a chance to see her, her talks are very visual and really engaging.
And yes, her ideas - doughnut economics - are so clever, and so important. Not because they are "right" but because they provide an alternative approach to economics.

2024-09-24 07:55:46 UTC

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The film (IIRC - it was a long time ago) was the same humour style as the series, but darker, as befitted a film that was never expected to be on TV.
I don't think I liked the film. The theme music was brilliant though. It got to #1. Despite the incredibly dark lyrics.

2024-09-23 14:13:35 UTC

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I think the rest of the troop showed how to deal with him. Just accept him as he is.
And they loved him partly beause he irritated the senior officers.
I am not sure I ever really saw him as a cross dresser. He was just someone who was rebelling. So many of them rebelled in their own ways. And that was important.

2024-09-23 10:39:57 UTC

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Thing is, from what I recall, Klinger was neither mentally ill or a transvestite from the start. He came to enjoy the dressing up, the whole thing, and so probably was converted to it.
But he was never mentally ill. He was the sanest of them all. He did something that he thought would get him sent home. If it wasn't for Colonel Potter refusing to send him home because it was obviously a ploy (i.e. Klinger was never mentally ill), it would have worked.
ETA: I can't spell. Sorry.

2024-09-17 07:47:15 UTC

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Agree of course. And yet the political classes are still refusing to accept this. And so cannot fix some of this countries woes because they refuse to see the root problem.
It is like an A&E doctor ignore a pulsating wound and wondering why the patients blood pressure is decreasing.

2024-09-07 09:20:58 UTC

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I think a lot of the "deeper forces" are also tory corruption - at a much deeper level. Not the politcial party - the ruling classes.
The class divides in the country have changed. And the divisions in our society - also racist divisions and wealth divisions - are rife and stoked always by those in power.
We need to sort it, or we will continue to collapse as a nation.

2024-08-11 16:34:13 UTC

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The West have decided that genocide is the better option.
QUite some turn around.

2024-08-09 14:43:14 UTC

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And so it should (not meant in criticism of you). It is a book about authoritarian government, and it is intended to represent actual government, and is based on Orwells own observations and experience.
It is supposed to scare people into not voting for the fascists. Sadly, those who do haven't read it. Or understood it.

2024-08-08 13:23:23 UTC

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I think it si also significant that these counter demonstrators/antifa/decent people whatever seemed to outnumber the thugs and terrorists by a significant number.
And they had a legitimate grievence against the police for failing to protect them.
And yet, there was no violence.
Almost as if - those who commit violence like this are just fascist terrorists, not "ordinary people with a grievence". Despite what the fascist politiians say.

2024-08-01 14:57:12 UTC

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Also, on the subject (very important) of tea, how do you ask for a black tea with milk in a tea shop with variations? I mean, it isn't white tea, that is different. It is white black tea. Which is a pain.

2024-06-29 12:01:44 UTC

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Oh don't get onto that one. For many of them, it is the King James Version, which was written by God apparently.
Which proves that God is a terrible writer.