Fardels Bear

Ceci n'est pas un ours.

Jusqu'ici tout va bien.

Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

I also hang out at:
riggbeck@mas.to
riggbeck@troet.cafe
FardelsBear@bookwyrm.social

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Last Notes

2026-04-30 18:33:14 UTC

Starmer said:
“Antisemitism is an old, old hatred, history shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back,” he said. “Yet, far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don’t see it or they don’t want to see it.”
I agree. Now let's replace 'antisemitism' with 'Islamophobia' and see if he views it with equal horror. Particularly when it's expressed as apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Starmer doesn't see it or want to see it.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/30/starmer-calls-on-public-to-open-their-eyes-to-jewish-pain-in-wake-of-golders-green-attack

2026-04-06 13:21:12 UTC

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I'm there for the hedgehogs, but I'm also appalled by the idea of robot lawnmowers. Didn't even know they existed. If you're going to inflict stripy grass deserts on the environment, then I think you should pay the price for that insane desire in heat exhaustion (at the very least).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/06/german-mayors-call-for-night-time-ban-on-robot-lawnmowers-to-protect-hedgehogs

2026-03-29 07:51:17 UTC

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I remember an economics textbook I had at school. There was a model for perfect competition, comprising an island divided into six equal areas, each having an equal amount of shoreline and hinterland. Any rise in prices automatically caused a fall in demand and vice versa. Keynesianism ruled, and monetarism was mentioned just once in a footnote. Obviously they went on to discuss the real world, but the model was enshrined as the mythical paradise from which everything was born.

2026-03-19 10:44:00 UTC

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The corollary is an independent Palestinian state, but that wasn't even an afterthought. The point was to establish a strong European presence in the Middle East. The cop on the block who must never be found guilty, whatever they do. A continuation of the Crusades by other means. Both states should have been established at the same time in the name of natural justice.

2026-03-14 08:47:56 UTC

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Perhaps I'm oversimplifying, but it seems that the government could make some basic rule changes which the DWP has to follow. First halt all prosecutions for existing overpayments. Then require the DWP to inform carers as soon as they've been overpayed. And any repayment should only be the amount overpaid, not the full allowance. Perhaps average overpayments over a year so carers can regulate their income based on DWP updates. This scam seems like a nice little earner for the DWP.

2026-03-11 18:33:39 UTC

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I watch the video of these quietly courageous women, then I think about Whisky Pete Hegseth with his misogyny and ridiculous macho posing, and I think he must be a pathetic, inadequate loser to have to protest so much.

2026-03-11 08:09:01 UTC

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They might have noticed from Venezuela that Trump isn't interested in a return to democracy, only in control, and for that the existing authoritarians can do a surprisingly good grovel if it ensures their survival. Even Machado giving Trump her Nobel Peace Prize couldn't persuade him to ease her party into power. Vested interests speak to vested interests in the same language.
But Iran is a different matter. This won't be easy at all.

2026-03-04 13:48:04 UTC

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The American colonists in N. America famously wanted no taxation without representation. The corollary is no representation without taxation.

2026-03-04 13:35:32 UTC

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If they're not paying taxes the government should charge them a heathy fee for being rescued.

2025-12-19 07:25:20 UTC

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Economics began as a theory at a time when the population was quite small and resources seemed endless. Always more to exploit and everyone could become better off, though always with glaring inequalities.
Now we're depleting resources at an unsustainable rate, and the population is 8 billion. Some theoretical studies show that we could give everyone a decent standard of living, but that calls for us to be much better people than we are.
Adam Smith's toy model is broken.

2025-12-02 14:13:16 UTC

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No other ban on football fans would be as closely scrutinised by parliament as this one. And the reason is that the government is terrified of offending Israel and appearing antisemitic. All the evidence points to Maccabe Tel Aviv as being violent thugs.

2025-12-02 11:44:47 UTC

While I've no doubt that some of the opponents of assisted dying are sincere, there's also a lot of cant. Conservative views in league with religious opinion to block a basic human right. Gordon Brown tends to get trundled out as the 'reasonable' voice in matters like this, as he was during the Scottish independence referendum.
The point of these roadblocks is prevent this natural human right from ever becoming law.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/02/assisted-dying-palliative-care-underfunded-politicians

2025-12-02 10:26:56 UTC

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It's not a new problem. One of the factoids stuck in my brain from schooldays is the Speenhamland system of the late 18th, early 19th century. It was a system of local Poor Law relief that paid benefits on a sliding scale, depending on the price of grain. This left farmers free to raise their prices as much as they liked. A Royal Commission in 1834 called it a "universal system of pauperism".
The current benefits system seems to be run on the same principle.

2025-11-30 08:59:43 UTC

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This room has a Marie Celeste look to it. Where did the people go?

2025-11-07 11:54:31 UTC

I may be the only person in the UK who hasn't watched Traitors. It was the same with Game of Thrones.

2025-11-05 09:51:46 UTC

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This was predicted in the 1950s in The Space Merchants, by Fred Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants

2025-10-31 14:00:12 UTC

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Or when will she walk the plank? Thought I'd get that in before all the sailing metaphors were used up.

2025-10-23 08:41:14 UTC

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I enjoy the tone of your toots. I just started an OU Arts & Humanities module, and I'm struck by the nuanced and reasoned way academics address issues, even (shock, horror) providing evidence to back up their claims.
This is a practice that's scarcely reached our enlightened kingdom, ruled over by the great John Mastodon.

2025-10-21 07:43:44 UTC

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I'm all for deporting every Reform and Conservative party voter. I might allow Labour voters to stay, but only if they depose Starmer and do a factory reset back to 1945.
It really is important to have a culturally coherent group of people, preferably with John Mastodon as PM.

2025-10-05 08:48:20 UTC

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Starmer is unlikely to visit the scene of this terrorist incident, in solidarity with the worshippers against the rise in Islamophobic hate crimes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyjlx2e4l8o

2025-10-04 05:55:01 UTC

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Where real Americans lived. Everyone else is an immigrant.

2025-09-24 08:55:11 UTC

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I agree about the popularity of left-wing policies. That's why I want the Greens to promote them as much as possible. They need to occupy a much bigger chunk of the Overton window than they do now.
However, if push comes to shove, the possibility of some kind of alliance should not be discounted.

2025-09-24 08:35:35 UTC

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But the progressive policies have to get enough support or they split the anti-right votes. Look what happened in the US.

2025-09-24 06:26:06 UTC

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I'll take any allies right now. The Lib Dems sold out to the Tories in 2010 and that's hard to forgive, but I'd give them a second chance. Ideally, I would prefer the Greens to ride to the rescue.

2025-09-18 14:16:39 UTC

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I wouldn't have thought that scraping Linkedin posts could in any way '"improve" the quality of AI slop. Quite the reverse.

2025-09-05 12:33:34 UTC

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I've always preferred morally flawed characters, or even downright evil, but I don't like irritating, which was my first impression.
I may be one of the few people who think The Goonies is the worst film in the world.
But i will give it a try.

2025-09-05 11:24:27 UTC

@npub1ny7…uv57
I've never read The Catcher in the Rye, so I bought a copy in the charity shop because it was very cheap. The first page doesn't inspire confidence. Holden Caulfield comes across as a whingeing, over-privileged little shit who I'm not sure I want to spend more time with. But I can always have the satisfaction of hurling the book across the room.
Do you have to be a teenager to actually like this book?

2025-09-05 05:47:43 UTC

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Avid reader at the moment but it comes and goes. When i was a teenager I read any scifi book I could lay my hands on. The recent years have been arid, though, and I made an effort in the New Year to start reading a book a week. So far, the total is 74, all types, fiction and nonfiction. It's like a raging thirst now. I need those worlds to dive into.
I don't usually go for thick books, and each one has its own speed based on the content and the way it's written.

2025-08-18 15:38:00 UTC

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Sounds readable. I hope they come to a thoroughly bad end.

2025-08-17 09:09:46 UTC

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LLM slop has entered the world of #LibreOffice.

2025-08-14 16:03:54 UTC

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I think that's a very good idea. My daughter in Bloomington, IN, campaigns for Indivisible. She works with local volunteers.

2025-08-14 15:51:28 UTC

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Obviously it does, since the Democrats are one party in a two party system that neither party wants to ditch.
Short of a revolution, the system won't change unless the Democrats change. The Republicans are very happy with it the way it is.
So apart from trying to elect progressive candidates, which has already been talked about in this thread, do you have any other suggestions?

2025-08-13 13:19:55 UTC

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"we need to change our system before getting 3rd parties"
Speaking as a dual US/UK ctizen, changing the system is almost impossible if the Democrats refuse to embrace progressive ideas. It's from that quarter that the sort of system change you hope for will come. The Democrats are comfortable with FPTP because at least sometimes they're in office. They're essentially conservative and will always try to preserve the system. See also the UK.

2025-08-06 12:53:09 UTC

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Every time I see this picture, I'm reminded of Branwell, their brother, so ineptly painted out that it's obvious he wasn't included.

2025-08-05 07:14:40 UTC

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Odd how this sort of incentive isn't deemed to 'energise and focus' ordinary workers.

2025-08-03 07:16:57 UTC

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House prices are a fetish.

2025-07-18 07:18:40 UTC

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A point demonstrated in her BBC interview with James Naughtie.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002fwpv

2025-07-03 18:50:26 UTC

"The broadcaster said it would make "immediate changes to livestreaming music events", so that "any music performances deemed high risk by the BBC will now not be broadcast live or streamed live" in the future."
The BBC is in full moral cowardice mode.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjkmlj1348o

2025-05-09 21:16:51 UTC

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Yes, but they take themselves far less seriously.

2025-05-09 16:07:16 UTC

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I agree. Basically, we're all just bumbling along, and the Hero's Journey schtick is a fictional self-help manual.
Terry Pratchett's protagonists are much more realistic.

2025-05-04 18:02:33 UTC

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Only in the USA.

2025-04-29 18:15:01 UTC

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That's a pity. It would have made an interesting article. I remember reading Dunne's theory of time as a teenager, though I've forgotten most of the details. And arcane Whovian knowledge always gets my attention.

2025-04-29 14:58:23 UTC

An appeal to the academics in the fediverse.
I'm reading Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, in which there's a reference to this article:
Timey-Wimey: Steven Moffat, Blink and J. W. Dunne's theories of Time, Journal of Space, Time and Everything, Volume 64, University of Minnesota Press.
Can't find the article or the journal, though the press exists.
Probably a cod reference but it sounds so plausible it ought to be true. All three elements exist, and I really want to read it.
@npub1ny7…uv57

2025-04-22 11:29:20 UTC

Talking about UFOs...
"All of us knew enough about spacenapping to know that it could go either way. Some days it was all wet kisses and talk of mutual cooperation. The next minute it was out with the old steel scalpels and heigh-ho for penetrating the earthling body in a variety of disgusting ways."
From They Came from SW19, by Nigel Williams.
@npub1ny7…uv57

2025-04-15 09:16:08 UTC

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Starmer will be over the moon. Speaking as a dual UK/US citizen, I think the current US kleptocracry is a malignant cancer that should be fended off with a barge pole by all decent countries.

2025-04-09 06:21:04 UTC

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#NewerLabour's push for more housing should have focused on social housing with no right to buy. The private housing market doesn't need any more help. It will take care of itself.
But that would take a Labour government responding to actual needs, rather than desperately seeking to stay in power by pandering to Tory voters.
I was about to type 'radical Labour government', but there's nothing radical about making sure that everone has a decent home at an affordable rent.

2025-04-04 13:41:19 UTC

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Cars should be taxed according to a formula that takes into account length, width, weight and fuel efficiency, so that the biggest, heaviest and most polluting pay proportionately more. You could keep the average tax where it is now by manipulating the formula.

2025-03-26 07:22:30 UTC

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"Wes Streeting paid tribute to Leadbetter’s “leadership through this process” praising her for constructively engaging with ministers, and her “willingness to compromise through the process”."
If Wes Streeting, a vocal opponent of the bill, approves then you know the fix is in. The long grass shall be its resting place.

2025-03-20 19:35:29 UTC

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Then I'd use an ebook. Needs must when the devil drives.

2025-03-20 19:02:43 UTC

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To clarify, I don't search out old books. This was pure serendipity, a chance find in the local author section of the public library. They have a selection of Macvicar's work, who I'd never heard of before.
I was instantly hooked, went through the first two in the Lost Planet series like a dose of salts, and took out the third today. Sadly, that's all they have, and there are three more in the series.

2025-03-20 13:01:01 UTC

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Reading is something that takes place in the context of the technology it uses and the meaning we assign to it.
Growing up in a world of print books, falling in love with books and their ideas through that medium, means that I see print books as more real than ebooks. The medium is the message.
Ebooks are symbolic of the capture of a profound, multi-faceted pleasure by an alien corporate technology that wants to reduce it to mere content. I want none of it.

2025-03-20 11:02:29 UTC

I sometimes bang on about how real books are better than ebooks, but here's a good example.
A YA novel from 1954, Return to the Lost Planet, by Angus Macvicar. A classic ripping yarn, stuffed to the gills with 1950s tropes, and a hugely enjoyable romp.
A scuffed hardback, with gently curving front and back boards. The pages are foxed. But what hits you is the smell, the aromatic distillation 70 years of history, perfectly in tune with its content.
I kept burying my face in it.
@npub1ny7…uv57

2025-03-19 11:48:45 UTC

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Books are never litter. I've got 300-400 of them in my small flat and they're all on shelves.
I broke bad with my local charity shop when I realised they only display the sort of middle of the road books that get recommended on daytime television. The interesting donations may go to other shops or are dumped, so the manager told me.
They'll get nothing more from me. Now I secretly infiltrate unwanted books onto the public library shelves when the staff aren't there.

2025-03-16 12:03:34 UTC

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On the other hand, it sometimes works as a strategy. Propose something utterly vile, then do a reverse ferret to something merely awful, which was what you were aiming for in the first place.
It shows people that the government is listening. And if they sit still for the utterly vile, then it's a bonus.

2025-03-07 14:49:44 UTC

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That's right. I'm always acutely aware of what I need to do but getting it done takes forever.
Right now I'm looking at a printer I bought at least 4 months ago, but only recently took out of the box and physically set up. The digital setup is next and my mind is shying away from it like a spooked horse.

2025-03-03 08:05:12 UTC

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When I see Wes Streeting I'm irresistibly reminded of Steerpike, with his clean, shiny face, plotting the downfall of the NHS while ostensibly charged with protecting it.

2025-02-21 12:14:45 UTC

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Only oligarchs get the lifeboats. Anyway, there aren't enough for the other passengers.

2025-02-21 12:09:32 UTC

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An excellent survey of Austen's greatest hits, but missing my favourite pieces of her juvenilia.
Austen wrote Love and Freindship when she was 14, a sparkling display of teenage wit and irreverance, wickedly mocking the romance genre of her time. (The film of the same name is an adaptation of another story.) Followed a year later by The History of England, which does the same for the history textbooks she must have had to endure.
@npub1ny7…uv57
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_and_Freindship

2025-01-30 21:00:34 UTC

Horrible news that Marianne Faithfull died today. She was a force of nature. Loved the the whisky and cigarette voice. Here's Twentieth Century Blues to remember her by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXWGHoRyNeI

2025-01-23 12:55:28 UTC

Book Review 20/1/25: Let's Talk of Graves, of Worms, and Epitaphs (1975), by Robert Player.
@npub1ny7…uv57
This is a properly lip-smacking mid-Victorian crime novel about one Barnabas Barbellion, a cruel and ambitious Anglican priest who eventually becomes Pope.
It's narrated by his son, who lays out the general case against him in the first chapter, then takes us step-by-step through the events. But did Barbellion really poison his own wife and his mistress's husband? There are red herrings.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/877/683/905/570/522/original/8a7e3bbbbfaaf141.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/877/689/500/785/839/original/f0a7e1ea24b786fa.jpg

2025-01-21 15:55:06 UTC

@npub1ny7…uv57
Just started reading my first ever Maigret novel - Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses (1959) - and it's brilliant. Instantly addictive. Thought I'd go back and read them in order, only to discover that Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and 28 related short stories. Plus his other novels.
So, Time and Mortality. Do I have enough spare time to read them all before I pop my clogs? I ordered the first in the series, anyway. They will help me get through a Trump presidency at least.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/867/136/024/684/376/original/0f641a3a06f2f0f4.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/867/142/526/988/082/original/028a186866b007f4.jpg

2025-01-20 13:10:07 UTC

Book Review 14/1/25: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
@npub1ny7…uv57
One of many classics I hadn't read until now. Miss Brodie as a teacher is an influencer, determined to shape the six girls in her set into the "crème de la crème" of 1930s Edinburgh society. She is quite ruthless, her view of the world being the only correct one, an attitude in keeping with her fascist sympathies.
She is also charming and foolish, a rebel and femme fatale, with two competing lovers among the teachers.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/860/724/032/638/566/original/37150b5237faae2b.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/860/734/550/665/022/original/d6f7c6cc0fdf2222.jpg

2025-01-18 19:12:25 UTC

"Starmer is open to organising a second state visit for Trump, where he could be invited to address parliament for the first time."
Of course he is. The moral vacuum at the heart of #NewerLabour will pander to any thug for political gain.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/18/a-watershed-moment-how-will-labour-play-trump

2025-01-09 13:17:57 UTC

Book Review 9/1/25
Thomas Ligotti is horror writer who goes far beyond your average ghosts and ghoulies: he uncovers the existential horror behind existence. No surprise then that he also walks the walk as a committed pessimist and ant-natalist.
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (2010) is a well-researched philosophical and literary exploration of the idea that consciousness is a curse and being alive is not all right. The language is witty and beguiling, positively devilish.
@npub1ny7…uv57
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/798/535/799/678/497/original/59c0bbae0820751a.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/798/560/113/577/443/original/bbc5846fafd6cffb.jpg

2025-01-09 12:51:50 UTC

Book Review 7/1/25
Fireworks (1988), by Angela Carter is a collection of some of her short stories. Several are set in Japan, where the first person narrator is achingly aware of being an outsider while also relishing the experience.
She is the Queen of the Night, conjuring up a world of sly, subversive, erotic associations with her imagery. One story reinvents the Garden of Eden in Java. Another melds the creepiness of puppetry with vampirism in Transylvania.
Heady stuff.
@npub1ny7…uv57
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/798/406/206/021/481/original/52453b518858d773.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/798/413/732/598/104/original/ab43b7fc85124f5d.jpg

2024-12-16 13:00:17 UTC

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Apparently he Police Scotland report has been with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service since August. I'm guessing they'll hang onto it until just before the Holyrood elections in 2026.

2024-12-15 21:43:08 UTC

The worst vegetable in the world is 25% bigger. Thanks so much, 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/15/brussels-sprouts-25-bigger-may-be-sexier-too

2024-12-12 16:14:14 UTC

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Social media is where irony goes to die.
In general, though, capitalism does churn out a lot of stuff, just not the right stuff for enough people, and usually with disastrous environmental consequences.
But if every capitalist was scrupulously fair and conscientious, then it would work well. Obviously, that's not going to happen.
Just as communism would work well if everyone was a saint.

2024-12-10 09:22:19 UTC

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I remember my school economics textbook. Monetarism was literally one small footnote. And we were given an example of perfect capitalism, working perfectly on an island. It was divided into 6 producers, each with a roughly equal area of coast and hinterland, so that the rational laws of supply and demand could freely operate.
Fascinated as I am by hermetic utopias and ideologies, it was a thing of beauty. The rest of the book focused on the exceptions, which were everything.

2024-12-09 13:35:43 UTC

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Thank you. I had no idea Clive James was a poet.

2024-11-27 12:28:41 UTC

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The language is telling. Never have I heard them talk about Ukraine winning i.e. expelling the Russian invaders from Ukraine. The unspoken assumption seems to be peace for territory, though unless Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia will always come back for another bite.

2024-11-15 21:46:17 UTC

The complainant says:
“Pearson tweeted something that had nothing to do with Palestine or the London protests: she tweeted a picture of two persons of colour holding a flag of a Pakistani political party standing next to some GMP officers … Her description of the two people of colour as Jew haters is racist and inflammatory."
The Telegraph is defending its racist columnist, suggesting that it's a waste of police time to investigate a racist tweet.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/15/allison-pearson-jew-haters-tweet-is-at-centre-of-telegraphs-row-with-police

2024-11-11 08:52:02 UTC

Blair's Faustian pact with the gambling industry was one of the worst things #NewLabour did. No wonder #NewerLabour doesn't want to change it.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/11/great-britain-lags-behind-europe-on-betting-ad-regulation-says-gambling-charity

2024-11-09 08:56:21 UTC

I don't understand this celebrity thing of thinking they're natural writers of children's books. Partly it's because they have a pre-existing fanbase who are low-hanging fruit, and perhaps the slebs think this is the easiest genre to write, but it doesn't translate into competence. Leave children's books to the professionals.
@npub1ny7…uv57
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/nov/09/jamie-oliver-apologises-after-childrens-book-criticised-for-stereotyping-first-nations-australians-ntwnfb

2024-11-07 14:27:15 UTC

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This is the most pessimistic take on the election I've seen so far, but it seems like the most honest. People who voted for Trump are functionally deplorable because they knew what he is and still did it. I hope all the pain they've inflicted on the rest of us falls equally on them. I hope it hurts all the more because they weren't expecting it. Perhaps they'll realise they made a mistake and vote Democrat in 2028, but I'm not counting on any sense of decency. They're dead to me.

2024-10-24 10:32:05 UTC

"In 2018 Lammy, then a backbench Labour MP, called for reparations to be paid to Caribbean nations. But in government Labour has ruled out apologising over Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery."
It's the very least he could do after Britain looted their countries and enslaved their people. Why would you not apologise? Perhaps Starmer is afraid of admitting Britain's guilt because it would open the the door to reparations.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/23/keir-starmer-slavery-reparations-commonwealth-summit

2024-10-23 16:19:43 UTC

I noticed a tabloid front page in the supermarket today, about the public not paying a penny towards these Games that Scotland is hosting. The paper was complaining about the SNP being cheap and offering something cut price.
I think it's brilliant that Scotland is taking this line. If Big Sport is going to foist their 3 ring circus on us, then they should pay for the whole thing themselves.

2024-10-20 14:48:23 UTC

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What is this 'meme' thing of which you speak?

2024-10-15 08:06:13 UTC

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Trump is the stalking horse to catch his MAGA base and win the election. Once there, the GOP will decide he really is unfit for office and quietly replace him with Vance. An equally dangerous bigot but a more acceptable fit for the traditional role of president.

2024-10-15 06:15:51 UTC

Spaffing £22bn up the wall in #NewerLabour's CCS boondoggle is specifically designed to continue reliance on gas.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/15/uk-risks-repeat-of-surging-energy-bills-amid-continued-reliance-on-gas

2024-10-14 20:34:21 UTC

Tragically too late for the Stupid Deaths segment of Horrible Histories, but still in with a shout for a Darwin Award.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/14/british-man-dies-fall-spanish-bridge-online-content

2024-10-06 07:44:56 UTC

Is anyone surprised?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/06/private-firms-ran-almost-all-care-homes-forced-to-shut-for-breaches-in-england

2024-10-02 06:04:28 UTC

Bad Enoch is in full Trumpian mode, suggesting that civil servants should be jailed. I agree, at least in some cases. For example, the scumbags who allow carers to unwittingly build up small overpayments, and then hit them with a huge demand for repayment of the full amount of the allowances. DWP, I'm talking about you.
But wait, that's actual departmental policy, and #NewerLabour haven't yet changed the rules that make the scam possible. Just following orders then.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/oct/01/some-civil-servants-should-be-in-prison-says-kemi-badenoch

2024-10-01 08:10:18 UTC

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A car shyly appearing out of the undergrowth. It's the headlights that do the work.

2024-09-29 09:59:20 UTC

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Arthur Machen is one of my favourite horror writers, but this story leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I can't help remembering that Agincourt was part of a centuries long effort by the English to invade France, which thankfully failed after too many years. Shakespeare has a lot to answer for.
Heroic as as hell, but they weren't invited, unlike the British troops in WWI.

2024-09-26 09:09:12 UTC

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"Because how can you ever hope to fix what you refuse even to name?"
True, yet apart from a mention of a "cost-cutting exercise", Clarke leaves the real reason for the NHS's woes to the end.
"What was singularly lacking in his speech, of course, was any mention of how, without a vast injection of new resources, he can possibly take the NHS from “the worst crisis in its history to build an NHS fit for the future”."
Historical underfunding should have been front and centre.

2024-09-24 08:13:24 UTC

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I remember the song, though I don't recall seeing the film, but I recently read the book on which it was based. Written by Richard Hooker, a surgeon who worked at a MASH unit.
It's funny in places, largely because he gets the voices right, but the banter is relentless. It might be a sublimation of hell. Even so, it hasn't aged well. The TV show updated the characters and made them much more relatable.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/191/430/132/172/596/original/e2696a83ee53c29c.jpg

2024-09-20 08:13:02 UTC

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The beautiful part is that donors are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They see a PM too poor to go to a football match and step up to do the right thing. I don't know what Starmer's critics are banging on about.

2024-09-15 09:23:20 UTC

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I had no idea PG Wodehouse started the Jeeves & Wooster stories so early. I always thought of Bertie as quintessentially 1920s.

2024-09-07 09:49:20 UTC

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There's no way to do this, but I'd charge a small amount for sending emails. Those on the receiving end could then waive the charge if they liked the sender or the message.
Proceeds would subsidise reduced postage for real letters.

2024-08-18 08:56:45 UTC

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Putting on my bowler hat, that's *the* way to do it. Makes up for everything else we inflict on people trying to learn English.

2024-08-16 20:12:56 UTC

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Je suis en train d'apprendre le français. Cest quelquefois un beau cauchemar.

2024-08-12 14:10:27 UTC

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I clipped out the coupon in my local paper.

2023-06-30 19:26:48 UTC

Closest thing to an introduction you're going to get.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/634/807/457/182/390/original/185989c3a872d0c9.jpg

2023-05-14 22:15:50 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/369/344/412/216/233/original/d6de0fd8fb0955cd.jpg

2022-12-30 14:46:11 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/109/603/163/796/121/673/original/f179b0e2717f2bd2.jpg