Boosted by @trending@homestead.social
"Burnham to announce plans for new North Sea oil and gas drilling". Bloody hell. Starmer took a few weeks to disappoint me. Burnham's done it before he's even in office. #UKPolitics
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rob
@robparsons@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06If anybody wants to know a few things about me
#UK - born in the NHS at 312ppm.
#Hedgehogs
#LiberalDemocrat
#WalterPresents
#CognitiveTrailTheory
#CovidIsNotOver
#Nightwish
#Springsteen
#ActuallyImReallyQuiteBoring
Profile pic is me with my fluffy sheep Ruffles. Header is about a hundred sheep who decided to form a ring on the downs one day. I'm not that interested in sheep, really.
404 Followers
749 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 28, 2016
Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop
Replying to on mstdn.science
@dryak@mstdn.science @axeln@norden.social @davidgerard@circumstances.run @cstross@wandering.shop a lot of food lasts great deal longer than they tell you. I'm still using (long story) four year old tins of beans and fish, and this week I snacked on a four year old bag of tarka dahl. And I'm still alive; I just checked.
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@andrew@social.hodgson.io @abucci @davidgerard@circumstances.run @trantion@masto.ai @fasterandworse@hci.social I think this is a major point. And it's not just blind people. There are genuine good use cases. Sales should not be banned, but pervert uses should incur significant punishment, including deprivation of liberty. Ditto, regulation of the maker - if they're found to be using private data for their own purposes, there should be very significant fines.
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@dramypsyd I do very much hope that "AI" will son be dust and ashes, and the em dash can return to its proper function.
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@alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross yu. I changed a character's name from Roy to Fred, and had him sailing up the Channel in a destfreder.
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@bleistifterin@fnordon.de @PeterLG@theblower.au @stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Em dash is the last resort. When a party of writers, grammarians, librarians, proof readers, historians, Trappists and philologists has fallen silent, just say "em dash". Several hours later the house will be trashed, several guests will be in hospital, riots will have spread through the neighbourhood and the police will have called in special forces to deal with the last proof reader holding out on the roof top.
Or, check Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash
"Asked whether there were people claiming benefits who, in his view, did not need them, [Burnham] replied: “Well, I wouldn’t necessarily go straight to blaming those people." Andy Burnham is the Prime Minister we need. First politician I've heard in a long time not equivocate about this. #UKPolitics
Just been #driving through a small town in Sussex that I visited regularly up to about twenty years ago. It was much more difficult to go through this time, much more waiting for cars coming the other way. The roads haven't changed (apart from the potholes), the cars are wider. it makes a big difference.
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@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social it was kind of inevitable. As a collector of US stamps, I've been quietly enjoying the fact that USPS seemed to have avoided trumpification. "Quiet" because I didn't want to draw attention to it. But it was pretty much certain to happen sooner or later. Sooner or later Trump is going to touch eveeything and turn it to shit.
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@TallSimon @dryak @axeln @davidgerard @cstross ha ha, no.
We've been keeping a stock, and we still are, but it's got a bit disorganised, hence the long dates on some of them.
I've just finished Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia. The final paragraph is inspiring. Pity the rest of the book didn't live up to it. #philosophy
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@twobiscuits@graz.social @ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us they also haven't spent the last forty years politicising aka wrecking what used to be a very effective organisation.
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@wood5y@mastodonapp.uk that's been my thinking for a long time. let them take money from whoever they want, but don't let them vote on anything they have a financial interest in. Think of all those Tory landlords who couldn't vote on anything to do with housing.
"If you registered for Internet Banking before 1999 you won’t be able to change your User ID until January 2014." Oops. Only 12 years out of date.
@jackcole@mstdn.social @dalfen@mstdn.social I really chuckle at the photos they post regularly of his acolytes laying hands on him in the White House. He clearly doesn't know what to do, whether to try to look holy or statesmanlike or what, and his face is an absolute picture.
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@jorijn @jwildeboer in the spirit of WYSIWYG, we should designate this WGACA. (Just in cae that's too obscure, it's What Goes Around Come Around.)
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@kline@mastodon.sdf.org @cstross@wandering.shop this is relatively recent; the first post on the live stream is 8.14 this evening. A bit late to the party, but at least they came
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@arensb @dramypsyd I was thinking wishfully, but with my rational mind I think what you say is accurate. I am more scepical about genAI having uses that justify the costs, but I'm sure there are some once those who care about the financing stop having wet dreams about it.
Currently reading Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia.
"[X and Y] are more interesting questions, but concerning these I have nothing especially interesting to say."
If only all philosophers were this self aware. #philosophy
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@catsalad@infosec.exchange doesn't it also depend on who they bite? For example, if they bite a vegan, they are still vegan, maybe. If they bite Trump, they might still be vegan because he contains no substance known to biology.
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@kimlockhartga @johnefrancis Cockwombles. Fartlepants. Dithermump. Chumpface. Turniphead.
@ApostateEnglishman I want to double favourite that.
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@quixoticgeek@social.v.st @cassana@the-crossroads-inn.com @afewbugs@social.coop you got wallpapered, didn't you
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@cstross@wandering.shop yup, that's me too. Though more like 500 words a day. Still they're high quality words 😂
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@kagan @Steveg58 @holothuroid yes, that is true. The number of people who think light grey font on white background is asthetic....e
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@catsalad@infosec.exchange @0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange I answered the question correctly in my view. Silicon Valley understands consent perfectly. It just doesn't accept that it's necessary.
Here's my reaction to last week's election results from a LibDem point of view. "The most unfortunate result possible." https://www.libdemvoice.org/the-most-unfortunate-result-possible-79698.html #UKPolitics
"This UN resolution did not settle the reparations debate. It exposed who wants the wealth from #slavery to remain history’s most profitable amnesia. And it reminded the world that justice delayed is not justice denied." https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/apr/08/slave-trade-uk-eu-ghana-un-resolution-slavery #ukpolitics
Easter Day is an appropriate day to finish reading "Cave In The Snow" an account of the life of Tensin Palmo. She says at one point: "It's a poverty of our time that so many people can't see beyond the material".
And then: "To my mind the contemplatives and the solitary meditators are like lighthouses beaming out love and compassion on to the world". #buddhism
It's interesting that every one of the thousands of newspaper photos of Farage shows him with his enormous gob wide open in a great guffaw, and usually with a pint in his hand. Until now, when they've all scurried to find pics of him looking worried. I wonder why? #UKPolitics
I've just seen Peatbog Faeries described on Youtube as "Americana, Blues, Country". What????? #PeatbogFaeries
I've jus set up a ko-fi shop. Man, that was exhausting.
Ladybirds doing what ladybirds do together on my car windscreen at up to 50 mph. They only fell off when I stopped the car. They must have monster suckers on those little feet. #insects