Post was the best 🥹
Cycling, music, political and other random ramblings. Work: language assessment/psychometrics/computer science in some order. Once drew trees and was told it was "better than felling them", which is a start, I guess. Views my own; cat photos will happen.
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Post was the best 🥹
As well an insight into the forthcoming bloodbath in the Labour Party, this article has an excellent example of the use of "be like" as a reporting verb - existing between direct and indirect speech, with the former's vividness and the latter's artistic licence. Language evolution in action.
... and of course he chose to name himself after Tommy Robinson, a notorious member of the Luton Town MIG football hooligan crew in the 1980s.
Of all of the takes over the Mandelson affair, the idea that the main reason this is bad is because it might cause embarrassment to Donald Trump since he was up to his neck with Jeffrey Epstein is ... well, a take.
New throwing event: throwing the match. Person who comes last wins.
"And in any case, do you want the left buying a crate of Bollinger *on your credit card* and pouring it on the carpet?"
"What if we cover the whole carpet? People might think we bought a new red carpet."
BBC has decided a fresh approach is needed to halt the decline in ratings.
For "national treasure", of course read "place I used to go".
Is the Jericho Tavern still going strong? I hardly dare ask - national treasure.
This is a contender for the worst-typed post I've ever "written", which is saying something - apolgies. I think I count four separate typos? 🥹 I have not been drinking, just for the record.
They were particularly unlucky at this crucial moment yesterday - if the ahlfway line had been somewhere else, Haaland would have been offside. And afterall, who could possiblyhave predicted were it would be at the time?
This is actually the perfect response.
Implications for the journal, too - being caught publishing a paper with fake citations is corrosive to the trust people place in your journal (and academia more widely, tbh), so yes, I agree. Researchers placing their own short-term gain over the journal's, and the community's, long-term health.
I humbly submit my obligatory typo as evidence to this effect.
In fact, I might go further and consider it a "yellow card" offence - we're rejecting your paper out of hand because it has a fake citation; we have made a note of this, and if you submit any further papers with fake citations we will no longer consider any sumissions from you. Scholarly hygiene.
*read, even 🤦♂️
Should add that the policy on this is up to the journal, of course - I'm not advocating vigilantism by reviewers - but if I were editor of a journal, I'd consider a fake citation as evidence the work falls below basic scholarly standards (work is all your own and you've red the papers you cite).
Even Donald Pleasence himself would have struggled to match this.
Of course, Stefan's villainy reached its peak in 1989 with the release of Don't It Make You Feel Good.
Isn't it clear evidence that substantial parts of the content not authors' own work, in that the citation (which obvs hasn't been read by authors) relates to a point of substance they didn't write. Grounds for rejection out of hand IMO, and renders the rest of the paper suspect as well as sloppy.
Unzoomed #606 1/6 🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ I may have had certain advantages for this one.
Jacqui Smith, hero of liberalism - 2025 never disappoints
(But more seriously, it's an unmitigated good thing that Starmer has finally roused himself to say something in condemnation of the wave of fascist street thuggery the nation is currently enduring - more of this, in stronger terms, needed.)
I look forward next weekend to massed ranks of Starmer ultras with SENS and IBLE tattooed on their knuckles standing, arms spread, chanting "No surrender to the EDL"
Well, Manchester United settling into 14th place - so far, their season has to be considered a success by Ineos #marginalgains criteria.
Ed Davey gets it.
Either way, this needs to be a wake-up call to civic society to unite across the spectrum of civilised politics against this threat - no accommodation or appeasement, no more talk of "legitimate concerns". This is the real thing and needs to be treated as such.
... a *lot of money, co-ordinating and organising went into this (I have no doubt there's a direct link to JD Vance's fake "holiday" int he UK where he met with various far-right leaders), and prep work through the flag campaign leading up to it, so - optimistic view - maybe this is the upper limit?
I'm trying to work out how distressing the figure (which I'm not going to quibble with) of 110,000 fascists marching in London yesterday is. On the one hand, it's obviously terrible that fascists can mobilise so many people in the UK - but on the other hand...
The correct way to obtain the best estimate of the size of the crowd at a protest is to take the geometric mean of the estimates provided by the police and the organisers.
You've reminded me that the phrase "Luke Akehurst MP" is a thing, and... how?
The problem is that people learn how to debate in these societies and think that this is what debate is, and how to do it - not as a way to seek the best way forward, but just as a way to get one up and win by any means. This then gets transferred to the House of Commons, and you get Michael Goves.
So Tom Pidcock has one more mountain stage to navigate (ignoring tomorrow's flat stage), with a 39-second lead over Jai Hindley, to finish on the Vuelta podium. An extremely impressive performance, even if it does go wrong for him on that final mountain.
I heard she's going to get Tommy Robinson in a headlock live on TV and make him say "I love immigrants".
I think this is code for "It is time to introduce a flat tax"
Long may that trend continue
*Rule 1* In any situation, if there isn't an apposite quote from This is Spinal Tap, there is one from Apocalypse Now! - and if you can't think of one, that simply means you haven't watched those films enough times. Go and watch them again.
I've decided to do my bit to counter the toxic manosphere, so as a counterwight to Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules, I am going to start compiling a list of my own. All genders are welcome.
Otto von Habsburg met, as an infant, his relative Franz Joseph who became Emperor of Austria in 1848; he also served as an MEP alongside Eluned Morgan who became First Minister of Wales in 2024.
1 "We have to act to show we get people's concerns to meet the far-right threat." 2 "That doesn't work. You just raise the issue's salience and accept the far-right's premise." 3 "But we have to or we'll lose votes." 4 "You'll lose more votes doing this." 5 "We have to or we'll lose votes." 6 GOTO 4
I’m not sure she’s quite got to grips with Farage’s appeal.
🇳🇴 to the rescue
In which the president of the United States of America dismisses domestic violence as "things that take place in the home".
NEC vetoing the candidacy of one of Labour's most popular and successful politicians, not to mention one with previous ministerial experience - denying PLP that voice and experience in the process - would be such a bad look in terms of pettiness and insecurity. Could they really get away with that?
It's also perfect timing during the flag controversy 😂
Mine is "The trains should run on time."
Well - you have to tell us what it is now, and take what's coming to you...
Top trolling
IMO Osborne's legacy involves the most damage more broadly to UK politics - his relentless bad faith and governing-as-campaigning laid the foundations for the charlatanism of Johnson's government. Before Osborne, this happened from time to time as a tactic, of course, but not as a guiding principle.
Well, this tracks - workhouses were a form of de facto slavery within this country, after all.
I've thought about this and decided that Emily Thornberry is definitely the best option, based mainly on her penchant for a withering jibe, combined with the fact that she both has reason to feel hard done by and is clearly unimpressed with [gestures vaguely around]. Entertaining times ahead.
If they're not woken up at 5 o'clock every morning with a bucket of cold water, it doesn't count.
When talking about the next election, it's important to remember that we are currently roughly half way between this tweet and when the next election will actually be held. Good luck predicting anything
All ODI series to be decided on NRR, effective three weeks ago. Decision to be reviewed for appropriacy in future at a time TBD.
And there was me thinking Farage was all in favour of people Just Asking Questions...
No gatekeeping. All submissions will be played. There will be some curation for specific genres. If you have a show, promotion, podcast or clip you want to be involved let me know. If I have liked your music in the past you make hear from me. If not get in touch. ***All genres welcome***
"What film do you always return to, and why? Bizarrely, the film I’ve watched the most is Aliens." I always kew he was a wrong 'un.
Happy #caturday
At what point do this guy's evidence-free conspiracy theories fall foul of the GMC professional standards, which have a requirement for "protecting and promoting the health of patients and the public"?
😂
My daughter is about to head off to university in London and was asking me why her new postcode was SE - one thing led ot another...
Winner!
Is it postcodes? London has 6 of the 8 compass points as postcodes. The only two it doesn't have are S (which is Sheffield) and NE (which is Newcastle). But it does have N, E, SE, SW, W, NW,
Postcode areas represent all major points in the compass? N, NW, W, SW, E & SE for London, S for Sheffield and NE for Newcastle
Winner!
The answer is nothing to do with Michael Caine either.
I refuse to engage with any cultural artefacts that claim there are fens in Worcestershire, out of regional pride.
Close, but not quite.
Come on, UK geography buffs - no correct answers yet...
I mean, this is a serious contender...
I rode through Epping Forest last Sunday, and skirted the edge of Epping itself, the very epicentre of this "mass movement", and I was taken aback at how grubby, small-fry and redolent of furtive little acts of vandalism it was. Hardly the stuff to inspire the masses to rise up in solidarity.
It almost feels like an astroturfed pseudo-movement trying to look like a mass movement despite mainly involviong a small number of sad sacks with nothing better ot do with their time, doesn't it?
“I too came from a poorish family,” says the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, eldest son of Major-General Gilbert Monckton, 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and Marianna Letitia, Viscountess Monckton of Brenchley.
My condolences to the suffix -ish, whose back will never be the same again after bearing that load.
Maybe Bluesky should learn from this and really commit to the bit by insisting that all new joiners provide an inaugural skeet explaining why they are not reactionary lackies of the capitalist system and that no, they don't find it at all funny either, together with a list of five names to denounce.
Your answer isn't entirely unrelated to the correct answer, though... 🤔
🤔 They might well be - I have no idea, TBH 😂 - but that's not the answer we're looking for...
(Maybe not too hard?) quiz question for the day, which just arose from a discussion with my daughter: How do London, Sheffield and Newcastle - and nowhere else - form a perfect set?
I find rubble is mostly fine on my gravel bike - it's baked tractor (and sometimes hoof) ruts that I find most uncomfortable to ride on.
Maybe Darren is working up to the punchline?
Well, I guess someone has to...
Well, that'll certainly put those "This is chaos" rumours to bed.
I'm sure there are some well meaning folk putting a few flags up, but the actual "movement" - which, it should be noted, started just after Vance had his fake holiday to meet far-right figures in the UK - is clearly part of an astroturfed campaign of far-right intimidation.
Not at all. That's entirely the intended message - with plausible deniability around "patriotism", so any criticsim can be met with a disingenuous "What's wrong with the flag - why do you hate this country?"
I still have a scar on the tip of one of fingers where the end nearly got sliced off by a rabbit. Endling up in A&E because you lost a fight with a rabbit is kind of a good way to keep your ego in check.
Or don't have a fixie?
😂
Maintenance aside (which isn't always fun in winter, TBF), even then, I'm pretty sure my gravel bike in fat tyre mode (650b wheels with 2.2" MTB tyres) would be better, especially running low tyre pressure.
No - *this* looks cool (not mine, before a phalanx of bike thieves descend on Cambridge looking for my house).
7 Single-speed/fixed-gear bikes Just why? (unless you are a hipster, which I am thankfully not). And thanks to hipsters, they're not even especially cheap either, which would be the only reason to get one.
I've never seen the attraction of either single-speed or fixed outdoors when you have the option, tbh.
If the NEC blocked Burnham from standing, especially in Liverpool or Manchester, the fall-out from that would be utterly disastrous for the party leadership. The seat is another matter, of course - it would likely involve an ally resigning to create a vacancy (as has been rumoured already).
I suspect the odds of Andy Burnham re-entering parliament himself in the not-too-distant future have shortened considerably now.
