@MacPsych maybe not your style, but you can get a range of LED clothing now… Sounds like a fun evening ahead!

@maique my big kid was a biter at age 4. In fact, he bit me the other day (now aged 10)! My little kid (4 3/4) bites when he’s VERY angry (usually with his brother), but fortunately that is now rare.

@luke 🌲

@markhburton if only we had some decent councillors who would stand up for the community here!

@luke After the recent Masterchef scandal I’ll never look at Greggs' sausage rolls the same way again.

@keenan yeah, good strategy. I’m hyper aware that I’m driving a potential death machine, and so is everyone around me.

@smockblog ha, maybe you’re right. Never thought of it as a preventative for depression!

@DiplomaticDiva hmmm… Isn’t Thursday Pension Day?

@dansmock Greta piece. It’s amazing how capitalism and neoliberalism almost gets a free ride when it comes to its everyday violence against ordinary people.

@vincent

@maique that’s the beauty of Tiny Desk.

@maique enjoyed that! Not something I would have thought I would have liked.

@keenan I feel your rage.

@tregeagle is running such a good idea?

@andyc imagine what might have been if Bryan Robson never got injured.

@ghostdancer he made me chuckle.

@ghostdancer I suggested he might want to get some more to avoid that scenario. He said, “Oh don’t worry, we have plenty more stamps. Just not these ones.”

@ChrisMayLA6 thanks.

@ChrisMayLA6 thanks for the explanation. So recession is not necessarily a bad thing?

@ChrisMayLA6 why does the BoE want a recession? Is there anything Reeves could have done to prevent it?

@andyc typical! My stream gave up after 70 minutes.

@andyc also a flasher.

@ChrisMayLA6 last month I saw my delivery driver outside my neighbour’s block then received notification of delivery. Went to my neighbour’s house, nothing there. Opened a chat with the delivery company and within a couple of minutes the driver miraculously retrieved the parcel from my neighbour and handed it to me, saying he “dropped his phone in the mud”. I could be wrong, but I suspect they say it’s delivered and keep it to sell on, especially if it appears to be valuable.

@moonmehta haha, I could do with one of those toilet signs for my ten year old!

@kjz no archive.org copy?

@manton happens every day here. If you don’t follow a runner it’s not unusual for someone behind to honk or go past you and take a chance. Complete madness!

@luke my missus loves shouting at me from another room, although, tbf, I stopped wearing my hearing aid when our little kid started grabbing things and putting them in his mouth.

@humdrum afaik, The Observer is basically the Sunday edition of The Guardian. The Observer is the oldest Sunday paper in the UK, so a long-running and successful business model employing people in secure jobs. As for The Tortoise, it’s a six year old loss-making start-up, so understandably Observer employees are worried about their job security and management’s business sensibilities.

@sjwrenlewis “…all the government has to do to get the numbers right down is to stop issuing work visas…” Is that now the government policy?

@humdrum I hadn’t seen it, but it’s great, thanks! He totally lives and breathes music.

@tregeagle she did well not to break anything. Good on yer.

@kjz haha! That’s a great piece @sophie. I especially enjoyed “Self-hosting is great if your hobby is self-hosting things.”

@kjz Ipswich had a wonderful team in those days. Gates was good to watch!

@kandr3s @kjz I can remember seeing Forest win 4-0 at OT under Cloughie.

@kjz I always think a place is what you make of it. If you go thinking it’s a shithole it probably will be.

@dansmock exactly!

@basil Probably a need s couple of drinks to calm your nerves after that.

@kjz I think he’s used to it by now. Just another bug to fix. Not a criticism, just an observation.

@kjz yep. You’re a very naughty boy!

@manton I wrote in my own journal not long ago that “journaling is someone to talk to.” I suspect it’s the same with AI to some degree - it’s a reflection of part of you.

@kjz as if by magic…

@val it was all going so vell.

@humdrum Tiny Desk concerts are amazing. I’ve discovered a lot of new to me music there. Like you not always what I would have considered to be my taste (also indie rock).

@cliffordbeshers “LOOK UP!!!”

@sullybiker “Related posts”… 🤦‍♂️🤣

@amerpie 👏👏👏 Could do with a few more like you and Michael, and some more socialist MPs, too.

@amerpie There’s got to be more to that story, Lou!

@odd nice url!

@Steve it’s amazing how quickly they work.

@kjz it really is.

@val shepherd’s warning!

@luke Little Simz is brilliant. I was slightly annoyed to find “DGB: Dragon Ball Super Manga Goku teams Set 1” on my Goodreads “wants to read” list last night, though. @tattooed_mummy

@Miraz you can’t beat a good hard boiled egg.

@vincent aha, thanks, I didn’t even know dark mode was an OS preference! Although having it as an “always on” option would be useful in any case.

@vincent I would use it if it had an option for a dark theme. Posting options for draft posts (i.e., to be able to edit categories etc.) would be useful, too.

@WiredDifferently the Democrats seem to prefer to spend “their” money on paying for celebrity endorsements?

@AlexKucera you mean there’s no such thing as the trickle down effect?! @odd

@andyc haha. I should try that if ever my boss succeeds in forcing me back into the office. He said he wants to create “a sense of team”. I pointed out that I’m the only employee and that being around other people in a freezing cold unventilated office could kill me, or at least leave me unwell enough to work at all.

@andyc I made that bit up. Your blog was brilliant. Do you think you will ever get into the habit again (said the bishop to the nun)?

@evan he has a long history of doing the opposite, so don’t hold your breath.

@spgreenhalgh my ten year old is addicted to Duolingo. He has a 66 day streak and is compelled to keep it going. Plus he’s learnt some Spanish (which he previously hated). I’m in two minds. I don’t like the addiction, but the five minutes every day is a good habit.

@andyc mostly on my music player. But I write down what I listen to now. Legacy scrobbling.

@andyc ribald double entendre.

@andyc you always could pre-record it?

@andyc gah! Just spent half an hour trying to login to musicbrainz in order to create a listenbrainz account. Then, of course, I can’t easily figure out how to do anything useful with it.

@andyc with the technology now available, surely it’s possible to retroactively edit him out of all previous episodes (like I did with Gordon on Tinap)?

@andyc pretty sure he mentioned is daily morning sausage.

@andyc is that a last.fm alternative? I found my enjoyment of music increased exponentially when I got a hi-res music player and some decent headphones (although, of course I did have to re-acquire much of my collection in hi-res format).

@tregeagle I just came back from a 30 minute walk, puffing and panting and unzipping my big winter coat because I got too hot (fortunately there are no police around here). My digital health app is very pleased with me. Just hope my flat feet can cope. Usually I end up in so much pain I can’t go walkies again for another week or so.

@odd it’s my big belly that’s the problem!

@andyc yeah, I just got an invitation for a covid jab from the NHS. But I had it five weeks ago along with the flu jab, which is on my NHS record, but covid jab isn’t. I probably shared your sentiments about kicking the bucket until I had kids, but now I find the thought quite upsetting as I’d like to live long to see ​them grow up (I know, I should have started sooner), and I know they would miss me (well the big one would, the little one would probably forget all about me soon enough).

@tregeagle yes, I’m sure. I hope my doc (or “health practitioner” or whatever they’re called) will simply admonish me for being a fat bastard and pressure me into signing up for physical exercise programmes. Are you also in “the club”?​

@tregeagle I was really hoping for a medical professional to tell me not to worry and wait for my doctor’s assessment.

@wyliecoyoteuk nice!

@andyc slightly concerned it’s taken you so long to inform us… Or did you take him to The Willoughby for a talk?

@kjz some great links in that post, too!

@Denny haha, sorry. Good breakfast food, though :)

it reminded me of this: Overcome space and all we have left is here. Overcome time and all we have left is now.

@dennyhenke it reminded me of this: <blockquote class=“quoteback” data-author=“David Marsden” data-avatar=“https://micro.blog/davidmarsden/avatar.jpg" cite=“https://davidmarsden.info/2024/11/23/overcome-space-and.html"&gt;&lt;blockquote> <p>Overcome space and all we have left is here. Overcome time and all we have left is now.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href=“https://micro.blog/books/9781476793313"&gt;Jonathan Livingston Seagull</a> by Richard Bach 📚</p> <footer>David Marsden <cite><a href=“https://davidmarsden.info/2024/11/23/overcome-space-and.html" class=“u-in-reply-to”>davidmarsden.info/2024/11/2… src=“https://cdn.micro.blog/quoteback.js"&gt;&lt;/script> @Annie @n3verm0re

@kjz yeah Spiders was brilliant back in the day. And the New Adelphi Club was an iconic indie venue. ​I grew up in rural north Lincolnshire, so Hull was very attractive in comparison! Spent many weekends there in my twenties as we used my mate’s house as a rehearsal room for our band.​

@kjz I seem to remember The S*n once described Hull as “the arsehole of the country”.

@odd I think Hull comes from an old Norse word meaning “deep one” as in the river it’s named after. A lot of Viking heritage in this area (rugby team is named Hull Vikings). A lot of history​ beneath our feet!

@odd I wonder if there is any relation to Hull, England, not far from where I grew up?

@Denny Wow! What an amazing piece. So much to think about. So many great quotes, but this is possibly the most apt: “We self-absorbed humans, meanwhile, mostly ignore the stories that lie just beneath our feet…”

@kjz yes, although I can also picture her telling him he didn’t do it properly and taking over.

@odd @kjz I don’t know if she or Denis liked marmite, but if they did she probably would have washed up the pot to recycle it.

@ningkantida beautifully written and I savoured every word, thank you!

@mattypenny and not forgetting his greatest hit The Wombling Song…

@RichardJMurphy strivers vs skivers?

@pratik wonderful photos!

@kaa @dennyhenke there’s a 2009 Brookings Institute paper (free pdf download also available if you search for it) which goes into some detail on the plan for Iran. Here’s part of the contents page, which is also where we’re at right now.​ No less evil, or incomprehensible to us ordinary people with humanity, but perhaps explains it in other ways? ​

@antonzuiker thanks, that looks amazing, although not sure it would work here in the UK? We keep trying to see planets in our night sky at home (which we have definitely done in previous years), but this year we can’t see anything at all. ​Maybe an increase in light pollution or just bad luck with timing.

@Denny @antonzuiker my four year old is obsessed with the solar system and Jupiter in particular. He would love this!

@Annie my wife does the whole two weeks feeling delay thing. I tend to get a bad back, or some other physical ailment.

@maique haha! Happy to confess my knowledge of awful 90’s disco songs is as bad as yours!

@maique Hop Little Bunnies?

@cheesemaker looks like one of those stores in Moscow from a couple of years ago.

@basil yeah, I got that. I’m just worried now that seed has planted in my head…

@basil “manually port”?!​

@pratik wow!

@cliffordbeshers fabulous!

@amerpie haha! That’s one I can relate to: “…dealing with drunken customers in the early hours of a Saturday or Sunday morning. I remember chasing a group of youths down the street with a carving knife after they squirted ketchup all over my nice clean shop walls.”

@odd nice hat!

@Annie I love those stick figures. They would make a great cultural awareness training tool. Are they yours? ​The centering of the individual is a relatively recent and Western idea, isn’t it? Freedom and all that? Embracing our interconnectedness and interdependence seems to be terrifying ​for so many, but also, of course, used by powerful people to further their own selfish interests.

@n3verm0re what a great writer!

@morph I’ve had a cough/cold each month since August, each lasted three weeks and resolved. Wife and kids also had similar. None of them bothered me too much. Then I had reaction to a covid vaccine (felt very unwell for two days, then post-viral fatigue for five days). Straight after got a new cough, now for two weeks. This one’s been exhausting with the wheezing and shortness of breath. What’s odd is that I was fine until I got diagnosed with copd after a random screening.

@manton bloody spammers!

@donovanwatts I wish we had more people on the cash registers at my local supermarket. They’re mostly self-service now. I don’t know about others, but I like to have someone to say hello to, someone who is better at scanning barcodes than me, and someone who doesn’t set if the “call for assistance” alarm every other item.

@luke yeah, thanks for sharing.

@davidmarsden

@hibou2.bsky.social the feeling is mutual. Now go harass someone else.

@davidmarsden.info Cosying up to BlackRock.

@odd some far right lunatic actually said that to me because of my hat.

@odd yes, I sometimes make spaghetti or penne and just melt grated cheese in with it in the hot pan.

@kevie yes, great comfort food!

@n3verm0re 🧀

@odd because anything that isn’t capitalism is communism and you killed 80 million Chinese!!1

@manton if the goal is to get more people to blog how about a free starter tier that’s just that, a blog? Anything else on top is paid for, as it is now? It seems like plenty are already willing to pay for cross-posting elsewhere, so why not here, too? ​Btw, I’m perfectly happy with everything as it is (fwiw), and thanks for doing all of it!

@basil two tier Keir! Presumably they all paid to protest?

@numericcitizen same here! Just thinking exactly the same thing right now. @Annie

@maique looks like a very tall door, too!

@jsonbecker agreed.

@jsonbecker I wonder if there’s a cultural element to these self-definitions? In the UK, it’s quite common for traditional working class people to hold socially conservative views. Enough to vote for the otherwise far right Trump ally Farage’s party and the otherwise socialist Galloway’s party, rather than the more socially liberal main parties.

@amerpie sorry to read this. My Dad is at the “been radicalised by far right YouTubers” stage. Best to stick to his grandkids and football.

@morph tbh, I’ll probably have glass or two of sparkling wine on the day

@morph Sorry, missed this at the time. Cheers! 🍺🍺

@ghostdancer I don’t know about MI5 and MI6 (I suspect they will and have to eat anything), but I do know for a fact that HRH likes his darjeeling tea served in a special cup, and he is a very fussy eater.

@Omrrc wise words.

@andyc andyr, too.

@luke 😂 too watery?

@luke tbf, tea is basically the worst kind of thin, watery soup made with leaves, isn’t it?

@Annie you’re very welcome. Thank you for the inspiration 😊

@Annie perfect! Excellent choice 😊

@Annie the least of your worries right now, I know, but my Cheese-o-meter might help you feel less cheesed off for a few moments?

@ridwan win-win!

@ridwan I was very disappointed to discover that I couldn’t borrow library ebooks on my Kindle. I might get a Kobo for my lad, who’s a ravenous reader.

@WiredDifferently looks fun. I thought my little kid would like one, but on further research it says keep fingers off the canvas!

@andyc yeah, although Kid A is currently tucking into a couple of Yorkshire puddings filled with gravy.

@andyc cabbage. Yes, sprouts will be on my xmas menum

@andyc your free bin liner is winging its way to you as we speak.

@Annie so sorry.

@davidmarsden I made another 100 pages of summary notes, lists and keywords for different categories for my personal stuff. Yet to start on my work journal, which is thankfully smaller at just a page a day for 45 days.​

@basil you’ll be wanting free broadband next.

@amerpie I recommend trying them if you ever get the chance. Should be more flavoursome than your regular English breakfast sausages and sausage rolls.

@amerpie did you try Lincolnshire sausages?

@Annie did anyone make that cheesy list?

@Denny great piece. And “The US is, of course, founded by religious extremists fleeing persecution in their homelands, and who then inflicted genocide on the native American peoples as they colonised and settled on their lands. It’s a white European, male supremacist culture, very similar to Zionism, so it’s really no wonder the two are inextricably allied.”

@ghostdancer cheese and fruit or sweetened vegetables is a common combo, though.

@ghostdancer it’s not a well known pairing.

@ghostdancer oven-heated, they fell apart. Nice enough mince pies. I think the Wensleydale is the winner. Pies are too sweet even for a mature cheddar.

@andyc aha! That’ll be the Wensleydale then, lad.

@andyc North, East, South or West?

@luke bit early in the season for me, but I just added two packs of pies to the grocery order for tomorrow morning along with some Wensleydale.

@luke I think it must be a Lincolnshire thing, or maybe even just a family tradition on my mum’s side. Good though. Better with a home made pie, no sugar on top. Lift the lid off, stick a slice of cheese in there.

@luke and do you eat them with cheese?

@stupendousman worth a read.

@miljko I love it, and the metaphor, even if it’s not perfect.

@mattypenny what else is there? Keep ‘em coming!

@odd I think Bill Hicks had it about right.

@andyc even worse at the moment. All he ever wants is custard, crisps, cookies, and yoghurt. Although he has been known to willingly eat a banana.

@andyc @basil I was going to come up with something pithy or profound as a throwaway response here but #metoo (excellent writing, though, I have to say).

@andyc potatoes and baked beans. Oh, and tomato ketchup…

@ghostdancer in his mind, bananas are the only fruit that stop him getting what he wants.

@ghostdancer he doesn’t eat any fruit. The bananas thing is because his mum used to, er, incentivise his eating of them, until he just gave up wanting the reward (a bag of crisps).

@basil sorry, assumed you were using a Kindle.

@basil hmmm… I missed page numbers, too, but just discovered I can see them (at least on some books). ​

@kaa great photo!

@amerpie Vivaldi was my browser of choice for several years until my old laptop died and I got a Chromebook. I use Kiwi browser on Android as it allows use of Chrome extensions.

@luke chicken tonight?

@andyc and we would have to wait a week to find out the result. And Trump would declare himself the winner in any case.

@odd probably the polls are rigged.

@basil your ex-microwave sounds unloved and undervalued, although trying to kill you was a bit of an overreaction on its part.

@luke I can’t get my head around hazy ale. Beer should be clear. If it’s not, take it back!

@ericgregorich Highly recommended from me.

@Denny Oh, yes, plenty. Main ones of concern are/were benzene and naphthalene, but so many others, too, a whole cocktail including asbestos, cyanide, heavy metals, as well as particulates. We’ve just been fobbed off and told it’s not harmful, it’s below legal limits, and it’s all in our heads (we’re crazy!). A bit of digging showed that even low level exposure to benzene, etc. can be harmful if it’s over a long period, they rigged the stats, and our local elected representatives were wined and dined by the developers in the south of France.

@Denny A couple of years worth of average exposure in 15 minutes? Is that a guess or based on anything? Just asking as I live a few hundred yards from an old gasworks site that was recently redeveloped, chucking up all sorts of contaminants into the air day and night for years.

@Annie great roundup, thanks. I would have missed this gem from @Denny “When I look up in the summertime I see the milky band of stars that comprises the central disk of our galaxy. From 2012 to 2018 I took advantage of the dark skies here and spent many nights outside at a telescope looking at galaxies 12 million light years away. Sometimes these sessions would start after sunset and last until sunrise, sometimes in the winter at 15° F.

@amerpie better than saying “Magic 8-Ball says…”

@andyc ‘The spineless corporate bosses meanwhile took an age to decide the safest bet was to keep ten Hag. Failure is expected and gives them half a season at least to bed themselves in and some new players, too, in time for a new manager.’ Almost right.

@andyc in the few minutes I saw of him yesterday, Marcus Rashford seemed to be playing at right wingback. He was about as likely to score from there as Aaron Wan Bissaka. No amount of shooting practice is going to help with that.

@andyc I think this is similar to how I got LockedOut of LinkedIn. If you find a solution, please keep it to yourself.

@andyc I missed this one. Damn.

@odd They must have been hungry today because they ate most of the leftovers without any fuss!

Thoroughly enjoying it, thanks for the heads up!

@andyc @methoddan Neither of us we great, tbf.

@methoddan @andyc I saw Chas (but not Dave) at Ally Pally in 2009. Even with alcohol, they weren’t great.

@Gabz My kids love Dog Man!

@andyc And yet they never had anything bad to say about the likes of Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile while they were alive…

@andyc They did something similar with Charles Kennedy, iirc.

@Denny A blood-sucking vampire if ever there was one.

@andyc Absolutely.

@ayjay People say the same to me when they hear me play ;) Seriously, though, learning how to play a song used to suck all the joy out of of listening to the magic of the whole piece, especially when part of a band. All the components were laid bare then rather clumsily put back together, often with bits missing or broken. I’m old enough now just to enjoy doing my own thing with a song just for the fun of it.

@andyc Hmm… My oldest lad was a lion and my youngest is a doggie. Maybe we’re doing it wrong?

@luke @basil @anon_opin TIL that black olives on pizza are unripe green olives treated (but not dyed) to turn them black.

@sod

@odd

@luke @basil @anon_opin Posh people.

@fkamiah17 @luke Overall, well over half of people (58%) voted for losing candidates. It was Labour strategy to lose votes in their safe seats, while winning marginal target seats. UK parliamentary democracy in action!

@holgerfrohloff Bookmarked, thanks.

@MacPsych Spanish Armada?

@fkamiah17 @luke And Keir Starmer, iirc.

@strandlines hey, no problem, wasn’t expecting a reply, so I appreciate it. I’ll possibly revisit the book one day when I’m feeling better about myself. And thanks for sharing your own experience with it in the first place.

@andyc I read somewhere that’s certainly what some victims did. In return they were arrested and charged on false accusations of stealing from Harrods (or similar).

@Denny Just been reading about the UK’s “Office for Budget Responsibility” which reports that the UK can’t afford its continued warmongering unless it freezes our old people to death and starves our poorest children. Meanwhile, our new “left wing” “Labour” government is fully committed to continuing the right wing neoliberal austerity policies of the old government of the previous fourteen years while increasing “defence” spending at the same rate.

@andyc Courgettey.

@sullybiker an inconvenience store! The rice really was worth it, though.

@val Wow!

@andyc The Irish lads are doing us proud so far.

@amerpie in the recent UK election a far right party that won 14% of the popular vote proposed a new law to put a stop to this woke nonsense once and for all.

@jsonbecker need plenty of salt and vinegar on them. Better also with some tomato ketchup, gravy or curry sauce.

@Denny Actually, listening back again I wonder if he said “I’m a Christian”? It would make more sense and fit with his style of speech. Also, he did claim to be a Christian four years ago. Obviously not a practising Christian!

@Denny Unhinged, but still a dangerous fascist and wannabe dictator. Odd that they deleted the “I’m not Christian” bit, claiming ‘A part of Trump’s speech that was unintelligible were [sic] deleted.’

@Denny the UK courts just jailed five protesters for 21 years for saying much the same and “causing a nuisance”.

@val although now I wonder if the grass on the pitch is artificial?

@val The football pitch looks like it’s being looked after and in use?

@samjc Corbyn’s policies were undoubtedly popular even with some of his most ardent opponents within the Labour Party. But thanks largely to the media’s portrayal of him (including during his many years as a backbench MP) as a “left-wing loony”, he was deeply unpopular with voters. Starmer successfully targeted Tory voters, and he’s certainly more popular with them than Corbyn!

@Denny I read somewhere that more aid entered Gaza before the pier was built, too.

@Miraz Almost like a Van Gogh!

@odd Eek! Must be nearly ten years since my last one. Luckily I don’t miss them and now find the smell repulsive.

@ronkjeffries Does this help?

@ayjay Beautiful!

@andyc ETH OFF?

@mattypenny Agree about VAR. It doesn’t make sense to me to train referees to sit in VAR studios. Get some kids in (haha), or at least some experts in video and sports technology? The TV companies are usually very quick and good at telling viewers what the decision should be. I’m a United fan, but that semi-final win over Coventry was a VAR disgrace, imo.

@Denny Domination and supremacy under the guise of “freedom and democracy”.

@mattypenny Just read the transcript. What a superb read! Roberto Rosetti has it about right, I think: ‘Too often, said Rosetti, it’s being used to “investigate every single detail” of matches. Using VAR in this way is “dangerous”, he continued, because good refereeing means accounting for the “spirit of the game”, which technology cannot do. Once, when Rosetti experimented with using VAR to review every incident in a single match, he found seven penalties and three red cards, according to a strict reading of the laws of the game.

@ayjay The most Spurs thing would be to lose to City, but Arsenal win the title anyway. The most City thing would be to beat Spurs and West Ham (and not have any points deducted). The most Premier League thing would be if all the drama happens in the dying seconds of the final games.

@exador23 I guess the really significant point is that Shireen was Palestinian.

@elmussol Fair comment, although, I should have made it clear that the words in my post preceding Starmer’s response were actually put to him as a question by an ITV reporter (I paraphrased a little).

@OliverNoble Labour postal votes here.

@steevc I’m sure that’s exactly what it is. No one comes out looking good.

@steevc According to this, she’s not standing at the next election anyway.

@steevc Anything to keep their jobs!

@andyc It’s excruciating to watch. The worst one for me was when he answered “The Dreamboys” instead of “The Full Monty”.

@ukplissken Get The Tories In!

@andyc I don’t know if you watched the recent Channel 4 documentary Defiance - Fighting the Far Right, but quite a few of the people involved in defending the Southall community then are our community’s leaders today, and they were understandably very unhappy with it.

@andyc you should search for Monty’s Celebrity Mastermind appearance…

@andyc my Labour MP has been consistently rubbish for 17 years, and can barely speak English, so it must have been difficult to find someone who could have been worse had he actually won.

@andyc the HA, for gritting our road and pavements (I think I’m the only one who has ever used it, though).

@andyc I had one of those in the office (although not leather). For elf and safety, obvs.

@andyc Grit. Black bin is for compost.

@andyc it’s a communal garden, so No Mow April and May is down to the Housing Association.

@andyc I agree that ETH must go, the sooner the better, too, imo. But Tuchel inspires no confidence in me whatsoever. I think he would be yet another expensive mistake. I also think a better manager could do significantly better with this squad (even ETH did better with it last season). Palace manager looks decent so far. So does the Ipswich gaffer.

@Gabz In the office, I have to pretend to work. At home, my boss can pretend I’m working. He gets paid more than me. (H/t to Bill Hicks.)

@andyc Tuchel seems to be the favourite at the moment?

@andyc I got a new phone and now I can’t login to my LinkedIn. I don’t get any notifications…

@elmussol Striding backwards and to the right. Not just the UK, though.

@frak @wyliecoyoteuk We converted to stainless steel from non-stick last year. It took a little while to get used to, but I’m sure the food tastes better as well.

@alexink Yeah, I hope so, too, haha! Although I’m sure he’d be up for it if it was an option!

@alexink Wow!!! My nine year old is going away next week for a school trip where one of the activities he’ll be doing is called the Leap of Faith…

@matt it’s not a public holiday, which may explain why no one was there! Although I suspect there may be a low turnout, in any case. If it was a public holiday all those public servants personning the polling stations and counting marquees would want the day off work!

@pratik 🤞

@pratik Unless City get a points deduction for financial foul play…

@morph it’s definitely a balancing act to get everything right. I don’t remember making much effort last time and it was a disappointing crop. Hopefully my kids will help!

@morph Any tips? It must be six or seven years since I last tried.

@basil presumably you didn’t even get a private hat tip?

@andyc Wife was well prepared. “He was delivered at home by two brilliant midwives, who were fully protected courtesy of customised #tinap bin bag aprons, unused clean air protest dust masks, and disposable gloves my wife stocked up on back in February when – without any scientific advice whatsoever – she somehow accurately foresaw the current coronavirus global pandemic somehow reaching the UK’s shores (and airports).”

@manton or a decrease.

@basil Never heard of him. He’s having it large now, presumably?

@manton Israel could simply allow enough aid to be brought in by land, but it refuses to do so. Puzzle solved.

@mattypenny My wife won’t eat in a restaurant that doesn’t have a five star food hygiene rating, but she sent our son to a school rated good because it was clearly better than other local schools (some of which were rated outstanding).

@mattypenny Brings back ‘fond’ memories of a couple of Town away games in the early 90s and 00s. Pretty sure the club strategy then, regardless of who happened to be the manager, was eleven men behind the ball and don’t concede. My limited data says it worked. 0-0s at Burnden Park and Oakwell. Not fun to watch.

@ghostdancer It was pretty gruesome.

@andyc What a shitshow! My local non-league club have been homeless for 32 years! Such a shame, as their old ground is literally around the corner from my home, and was at one time one of the best non-league grounds in the country.

@exador23 Not libertarian, but good old fashioned neoliberal “New Labour” in the UK.

@exador23 “… the WCK leadership’s decisions were not made to maintain neutrality, did not increase effectiveness, and, as April 1 demonstrated, did not protect personnel. The leadership’s failure to honestly portray the dire reality in Gaza, and its attempt to influence the genocide in Gaza via its status and close ties with the Biden administration, means that they bear responsibility for its outcomes.” mondoweiss.net/2024/04/i…

@andyc @matt @luke Indeed. And not just processed meat! Every time I make toast, my wife opens all the windows in the house to blow the cancer out.

@mattypenny An ode to better times?

@matt @luke Cancer… it probably was the sausage rolls (according to my missus).

@luke How did people make sausage rolls (and also apple turnovers) before this magical invention?

@benwerd Love it!

@andyc Did the earth move as well when you tagged your org-roam?

@pratik Stunning shot!

@marxistvegan Better than being acknowledged as the arsehole of the country?

@amerpie Wth is ‘mustard covered sausage biscuit’?!

@pratik a rare highlight in ten years of dross!

@pratik Do we really need softening up any more?

@amerpie Beautiful!

@ayjay Monet-esque!

@ukplissken Ah, yes, of course. They all look the same to me!

@ukplissken Is that the same one that got stuck in the Suez Canal?

@mbkriegh The Institute for the Study of War appears to be a particularly war-happy lobby f.or arms manufacturers…

@clorgie @pratik I’d never heard him speak before, so had a quick listen and chanced on a bit where he claims to work 16 hour days, 7 days a week. He looks and sounds like it!

@drandrewv2 It’s as if we’re expected to believe that people choose poverty and ill-health by voting for governments which hate them (or by not voting at all). And that this shitty government (and any future government) will listen to reason.

@andyc I managed to watch the first half before my kids lost patience with the “same old United” and switched the TV off. As my wife said, I “should have gone to the pub!”

@luke

@luke have you tried cricket?

@wyliecoyoteuk fake news is charged extra.

@mattypenny The Speaker broke convention to allow Labour’s amendment on the Gaza ceasefire vote, preventing a potentially awkward rebellion for the Labour leader. Now the Speaker sticks to convention, preventing a potentially awkward question from Britain’s first Black woman MP, who the Labour leader removed the whip from because she complained about a hierarchy of racism….

@V_ I thought it was a Banksy at first glance!

@benwerd I tried something similar (but with Bard) with my blog posts. Initial feedback was very positive (and welcome), but the more I gave it the more critical it seemed to be. I know I could potentially use that criticism to improve , but it felt like being trashed by the toaster (not so welcome, especially when it pops up warm bread or cinders with no toasty in between).

@Denny I can’t imagine a discussion like this would be allowed on mainstream TV in the UK.

@samgrover @Annie The Dispossessed is one of my all time favourites. I should really get around to reading more of her books!

@kimberley_rose @Denny ‘Two cheeks of the same backside’ here, too!

@Denny Similar here in the UK, of course. The UK Labour Party has deliberately moved to the right to win the ruling Conservative Party votes in the upcoming General Election. The whole political spectrum has moved so far to the right over the past forty years (and especially it seems in the last fifteen) that the UK Left is now more right wing than Margaret Thatcher! I work from home, but when I have to go to the office, I have to clamber over homeless people and their beds to get in.

@evan Thanks.

@Denny @pratik @davidmarsden @samjc @kimberley_rose The Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal in international law, and an ongoing violent action for 75 years. So, no there wasn’t a permanent ceasefire before Oct 7th. I already mentioned it, but Palestinians have tried peaceful resistance and been met with the same overwhelming Israeli violence from bullets and bombs funded and provided in the main by the US.

@pratik @davidmarsden @Denny @samjc @kimberley_rose Biden hasn’t bypassed Congress? For what it’s worth, I’m in favour of a permanent ceasefire and an end to the illegal Israeli occupation.

@Denny @pratik @samjc @davidmarsden @kimberley_rose Biden could start by upholding the “rules based international order” we hear about so often. He could stop funding Israel all together, or at least stop sending Israel more arms while they are committing plausible genocide. He could stop vetoing United Nations votes for a ceasefire. Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head. In international law, the Palestinian people do have the legal right armed resistance against the Israeli occupation of their land.

@mattypenny It’s Kieth!

@manton 💯

@kimberley_rose @pratik @Denny This is also very good: For almost 20 years Hamas has repeatedly offered Israel a peace process and effectively a two state solution, based on an Israeli military withdrawal to its 1967 borders, the establishment of a Palestinian mini-state on the West Bank and Gaza, with a ten year truce to negotiate other outstanding issues, such as the right of return for refugees.

@pratik @Denny Hamas, in their own words, on the background and rationale (link to pdf in article). Palestinians tried peaceful resistance and were met with bullets and bombs, just the same. Any solution surely must involve talking to the democratically elected Hamas government, but the US and Israel will not allow it.

@pratik yes what?

@pratik and the PA is a corrupt puppet regime that serves Israel and US interests, not the interests of the Palestinian people (which is why it’s so unpopular and why the US resorts to financial blackmail to prevent democratic elections).

@pratik If by tit for tat you mean that Hamas took Israeli hostages in order to negotiate for the release of thousands of Palestinian “prisoners” (many of whom are children, and held without charge or conviction, some for years before October 7)? Hamas proposed a permanent ceasefire](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68225663.amp).

@pratik Thanks to the US!

@pratik Israel rejected a proposal to release all hostages (including Palestinian children held in Israel without charge), because Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire. Israel wants to carry on with their campaign of plausible genocide (which has also killed as many as 50 Israeli hostages).

@Denny @pratik Back in November, an Israeli government minister suggested dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza, and it’s been estimated that the total Israeli bombardment of Gaza at that time was the equivalent of the two atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few years ago, a UK parliamentarian suggested relocating Israel to the US as a “solution”, which wasn’t particularly well received. I have a friend who was forcibly removed from his home in Palestine in the Nakba when he was a baby.

@JohnPhilpin @jthingelstad I watched it at the weekend. It’s beautifully made, and brilliantly acted and directed. That said, for about two thirds of it I was wondering if I would make it to the end. But it was strangely compelling. Such a lot to process.

@Gabz I didn’t even ask Google Bard (now Gemini) to do anything. I simply pasted some of my blog posts to it and it wrote a generous critique and added its own creative rewrites. It transformed my own “talking to you” stream of consciousness into something worthy of a children’s story book, and certainly left me wishing I could have been even half as imaginative. The only consolation is that it would be nothing without us!

@ghostdancer I should really get an extra point just for reading the article and scoring myself.

@ghostdancer just from your answers so far I would say you have 3/12. Seriously, though, I think it’s a load of pseudo-psychological neo-liberal self-help bullshit.

@ghostdancer I did better (or worse) than I thought I would. I’m halfway to being (un)successful!

@adders @ChrisJWilson tbf, there is conflicting evidence for the environmental impact of low emission zones. Ealing Council stated in their air quality action plan that they may not be very effective at lowering emissions and may in fact lead to increased emissions outside the zones. They also tend to be implemented in areas with relatively good air quality (i.e., more affluent areas). I suspect the conspiracy aspect may be related to the "

@ner3y have you tried jetaudio?

@luke @ghostdancer the US is built on violence, 250 years of it.

@wyliecoyoteuk I read that they are counting as antisemitism “hate marches” and Palestinian flags.

@luke The American Dream.

@steevc my grandpa used to eat them raw. Iirc, he mixed them in a glass with Ribena!

@kimberley_rose that’s brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

@khurtwilliams a picture tells a thousand words…

@samjc @Denny You’re in good company. Israel accused the ICJ and South Africa of antisemitism.

@methoddan look forward to hearing this and witnessing some of your creative process getting there. I wouldn’t worry about sounding depressed or angry, though.

@amerpie beautiful!

@ghostdancer Minecraft…

@Denny what a surprise! Not…

@JohnPhilpin I’ve been using Beeper for a few months. It works pretty much as advertised. Occasionally I have to open up WhatsApp if I need to search for a particular message.

@andyc the inane drivel makes you very relatable, imo.

@andyc ‘No one noticed’ would have been a better tagline, with hindsight ;)

@evan bombing Sudan created a convenient distraction from his marital infidelity. John Pilger describes Clinton as the most violent US president in modern times. He’s a pathological liar. Surely there must be better options? (The ghost of Henry Kissinger, perhaps?)

@evan true, but first they must acknowledge their own failing. Afaik, Clinton’s an unrepentant mass murderer.

@evan Clinton was responsible for several tens of thousands of deaths in Sudan. He had a few failures. Maybe not the best counsellor.

@methoddan coincidentally, I read these two retrospectives on The Ramones (and The Clash) only last week.

@odd I hope so, too! No sign of anything else…

@odd I think it’s a hi-vis work jacket.

@cliffordbeshers Mountains in the sky.

@methoddan Thanks for sparing me the gruesome details.

@methoddan Bits of Kids by Stiff Little Fingers? Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You cut your own finger off?! How? Why? (Actually, I don’t want to know.)