Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

Old roaming Tom Cat (zwerfkater) but still young at heart. Toots EN, (NL,FR,DE). #DevOpa - interested more in retro tech / culture / aesthetics than new stuff. Also transport and public infrastructure in general (with a UK/European focus)

Welcome to the secret goose shed!

Avatar is a tabby point Siamese cat - header picture is a Stentor FM radio transmitter designed in the Netherlands; popular with small pirate radio broadcasters in late 1980s

pronouns EN : NL: he/him : hij/hem
pronouns DE : FR: er/ihm : il/lui
alt:: https://cyberpunk.lol/@vfrmedia

Last Notes

2025-10-05 11:38:31 UTC

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Police Scotland are using the same tactics that constabularies in England use to deal with car meets, illegal raves and other incidents where the cops are outnumbered by a potentially hostile crowd - they just gather surveillance info and pick people off later during the week..

2025-08-20 20:45:01 UTC

#Denmark is scrapping a 25% sales tax on #books to encourage more #reading in the country and combat a #literacy crisis
TBH I'm more surprised Denmark has this high tax in the first place, books have 0 VAT here in UK (and Norway as well)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm48mvl33ro

2025-08-16 18:02:10 UTC

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also worrying a lad so young hasn't found something better to do with youth like making music or becoming a DJ, or working on bicycles / cars / motorcycles or all the other things /normal/ lads do (at least they did when I was that age).
I guess its the darkside of young people abandoning hedonism and becoming more socially/politically aware, it can go in either direction....
And why even would Canada, a large, well resourced democratic country, want to become part of the Empire again? Or India, which has a highly developed tech industry (both software and hardware)?

2025-08-14 17:21:15 UTC

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the only age-verification system that already works reliably in UK requires handing over your home address and having records on credit reference agencies.(usually linked to delivery of a physical product), its widely used to buy vaping supplies online (minimum age 18),
Certainly not privacy preserving - many will understandably baulk at handing over this info to view content online deemed controversial, and I think this is the intended effect of this legislation - to try and roll back /some/ of the permissive society, which social conservatives have been wanting to do since the late 1960s..

2025-07-23 23:34:11 UTC

Doesn't sound too bad to be fair! #doggo #guitar #music
https://f2.tchncs.de/media_attachments/files/114/905/160/766/479/200/original/2904ea3fa8700e03.mp4

2025-07-14 17:07:17 UTC

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a Council has 0 powers to actually "send people back", but if they create enough of a hostile environment they will sooner or later lose all their care staff to places like Suffolk, its not /that/ far away, (these workers usually have cars and driving licences and have already relocated from their home country, and my employers are instructed to recruit from "displaced workers" within the UK first before applying for any more visas..

2025-07-11 23:41:30 UTC

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TBH I am hardly surprised the militias can't be found whilst ICE are in the fields - folk can't be in two places at once..

2025-06-30 22:52:49 UTC

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to be fair some men have tried to challenge overt bad behaviour, but the most they can achieve are various forms of vigilanté action (including punishment beatings of suspected abusers, but its of course easier for them to pick on relative strangers rather than someone who might be within a circle of friends (and maybe physically strong as well) , and they cannot look into what happens "behind closed doors" amongst couples when they are on their own - for instance a controlling man isn't going to behave badly to his partner at a rave, he will wait until the party is over and they are back at home..

2025-06-30 22:42:16 UTC

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its got *worse* since 1990s, like all the gains feminists got in 1980s were pushed back (Susan Faludi wrote a book about it, albeit from USA perspective but even amongst my progressive circle of friends stuff like this was ignored as we all got distracted by raves and drugs).
Out of people I know (mostly now middle aged), just about all the women have been emotionally damaged by abusive partners, the men are unrepentant about sexist "banter" or past behaviour and perpetrators have got away with it - if they've served time its for something else like drug dealing or repeated traffic offences, they've never really been challenged for abusive behaviour by authorities or their peers

2025-06-20 01:17:40 UTC

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I've always seen USA politicians bleating about "small government" - yet they suddenly have all these feds from nowwhere.
if they aren't carrying proper badges, what, if anything, prevents ICE and other agencies from simply deputising the Proud Boys, handing them guns and uniforms and letting them pick off whoever they wanted (like in the "Wild West"?)
Or indeed fash just taking matters into their own hands.
Even here in England I can buy hidden flashing blue lights for my car from Amazon no questions asked (as well as the amber ones maintenance crews are allowed to use), and there's already problems here with folk being robbed/attacked by fake cops..

2025-06-06 14:44:28 UTC

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why would a homeless person (who is likely struggling to provide for themselves) steal a baby anyway?

2025-05-30 16:17:50 UTC

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its worse than that - there aren't even as many actual incels as folk think, a lot of the comments are coming from angry men who have had relationships and may even be parents they may or may not be currently divorced/single - but couples (quite understandbly) tend not to stand over one another when they are using the computer/mobile device, so its *very* easy for these men to make these misogynistic comments whilst still coming across as "perfect dad/husband/partner" at least until they fuck up their current relationship - but they often quickly move onto the next, at least unless they've actually done something egregious enough to land them in prison for a few years..

2025-05-22 21:57:51 UTC

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the worst thing is the government isn't even making any use of his experience (his family business has successfully rehabilitated many former offenders, and one of its main business areas is security-critical products such as keys but there has been no evidence of heightened risks to the customers!)

2025-04-28 20:34:03 UTC

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during national emergencies, many LTE mobile networks can be restricted to prioritise calls to 112 and essential SIMs (in devices used by the Emergency Services), its likely this has happened in many areas..
Luckily it appears Spain still has reasonably well funded public service radio, using both VHF/FM and AM/MW which can be received on basic analogue equipment that runs comfortably on batteries..

2025-04-22 17:57:26 UTC

Usual #gammons on FB blaming #youths and #immigrants, but this #crime seems more likely to be jealous older man - youths are unlikely to know what an #Austin #Maestro is (nor security vulnerabilities of 1980s cars) unless they into retro cars (and would have more respect) - and any immigrant who remembers it is going to be older and law-abiding. Although one comment (probably made in jest) of perp being someone getting out of jail after 30+ years isn't that far-fetched
https://archive.ph/pgONq

2025-02-09 03:06:51 UTC

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in Britain (where it is an equally common swear word) its treated more harshly if/when used in a misogynist context..

2024-11-25 22:20:37 UTC

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in case you (or anyone else is wondering about the alarm, I found this)
>Lorsque le caractère se présente face à la fenêtre d’exposition, un tube électronique émet un éclair stroboscopique qui va impressionner une bande de film.
so the éclair is a strobe flash to expose the phototypsetting film - which needs an alarm in case the tube circuitry is defective (I think "alarme HT" is for "alarme haute tension" to warn of problems with the high voltage supply to this tube)

2024-05-30 10:15:08 UTC

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if you lurk on UK car forums they are full of middle aged men moaning that speeding and drunk/drug driving are no longer tolerated like they were until 2005-2015 (at least for white middle class drivers), I suspect a lot of the anti ULEZ and anti cyclist paranoia is a dog whistle for these "good times" (amongst those who don't want to openly admit to speeding, DUI and general reckless driving)