"killing people from a distance in an instant at the insistence of a president with a black mail gun to his head for the fun that he had in the dark ages pages and pages and pages and pages they thought they'd get away with it ..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR15...

Covid vaccine will turn you into a zombie, they said. I had 6 covid vaccinations and it still didn't work. Thought I might finally get my chance to be an undead brain eater with number 7, but nope. We were lied too. Joking aside, the virus is still out there. At the very least wash your hands. plz.

Dear @ec.europa.eu . Here's a resolution for 2026: Tax jet fuel. www.youtube.com/shorts/WlhR3...

Interested in how cities can move away from motornormativity? Paris offers a good example. Whether it's updates on evolving cyclable infrastructure from @altisplay.fr or school streets and other urban developments from @emmanuelspv.bsky.social there are lots of positive developments. Follow them.

New one from Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren, "Mr. Oil Man." www.youtube.com/shorts/NpIq-...

Bye BB. Here's a hommage to a complicated French icon by another complicated French icon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOY...

One of my highlights of 2025 was having this essay/auto-fiction/creative non-fiction published by the good people at @minorliteratures.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2025/06/05/h...

this fellow has broken loose from somewhere; he’s talking about something and somebody we don’t know

You, using generative AI

Happy Christmas.

I just finished reading Shadow Ticket, the latest, and perhaps last, novel by Thomas Pynchon. It was fun and wild and witty, as you would expect, but I kept waiting for it to take off and it never really did. Just a series of McGuffins keeping a PI off kilter and on the prowl. A bit of a let down.

Work opportunity for English to French translators. "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is seeking a number of English to Irish translators for temporary positions in the lead up to, and during, the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union." www.gov.ie/en/departmen...

Spoiler (mentioned in the first 30 seconds) mostly because a wolf killed @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu 's pony. #NotMyPresident www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsAI...

Kids these days.

We live life through our meat. La cognition incarnée (embodied cognition) requires a nervous system. A disembodied AI can't understand what it means to feel things as a human, any more (and probably significantly less) than we can know what it feels like to be a tree. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wp7...

I haven't seen fire in years. Neither indoors or out. Not even so much as a struck match or a candle flame. As a young man I would have found this unthinkable. How has it come to this?

Mad call I it, for to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?

Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Venezuelan gangs of mass destruction. Same playbook, different decade. It's (almost) all about the US's insatiable thirst for cheap oil.

Commuting by bicycle in Belgium pays off as employees earn compensation for every km they ride. 1 in 6 employees commute by bike and get a bicycle allowance of €0.28/km. People cycling to work in 2024 earned an average of around €460 net per year (some as high as €810), up 20% over the past year.

Knotty issue at work involving multiple variables. Couldn't find a solution. An LLM spat out an answer in seconds. And it was pure nonsense. So I sat down with a colleague with a younger brain, a big sheet of paper, and a couple of pencils. Took us a while but we got there. LLMs are not intelligent.

Fascinating vid from @simonoxfphys.com Share with anyone you know in the aviation industry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOV...

More proof that many motorists want simple small affordable EVs, not 1000km-range luxury armoured tanks. *all cars are traffic, and potentially lethal. These are a pragmatic solution where poor infrastructure makes car ownership necessary. Not owning a car is best. cleantechnica.com/2025/12/15/o...

This one hits particularly close to home. Like 200 metres from home and an environment I spend many hours a year bathing. They've been in the lake longer than I have. I didn't realise they were invasives. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Me, in the 1970s. You have to memorise a secret password. 😀 Me, in the 2020s. You have to memorise a secret password. 🤬

Friends! I have one more story about heat pumps to share with you in 2025. It's a biggie! About some real biggies! Behold: the biggest heat pumps in the world www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just back from Berlin. A few trite observations. Baggy trousers are in. White boots for women too. Dr. Martens, still. Pedestrians really ait for lights to change. Eating out is surprisingly (to me) affordable. I saw more intact Berlin Wall in April 1990 than most (young) Berliners have ever seen.

Interesting times in France. Suddenly many anti-vaxxers (and pro-vaxxers) are calling on the government to roll out more vaccinations - not against flu or covid - but against Lumpy Skin Disease (which sounds more like a real thing in French "dermatose nodulaire") which is affecting/killing cattle.

"On 27th November, ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed an invite-only audience of around 1,250 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media with the latest implications for health, food, national security and the economy." www.nebriefing.org

If you've never watched a @lily-is.online video essay, firstly you are missing out. Secondly, this is a very good (and very relatable) one to start with.

Phrase/ idea of the day: MOTIVATED REASONING The process by which individuals distort incoming information to align with their prior beliefs, often driven by a conflict between the motivation for accuracy and the desire to reach preferred conclusions. www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psych....

AI is to art what UPFs (Ultra Processed Foods) are to cooking. You CAN consume them, but the process by which they are made and the satisfaction and benefits that they give are not the same. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFit...

If you want to know what Nepal's jeep taxi drivers are currently listening to at a million decibels while negotiating scary hairpin bends on landslid mountain roads (what am I saying IF? Of course you want to know). The video is great too. #visitnepal www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKHC...

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With my brainfruit

Signed copies of Lime Pickled and Tropical Madness, now available at Gerakbudaya bookshop, Penang.

A story from @connla-stokes.bsky.social connla.substack.com/p/somewhat-f...

Be there, or be somewhere else

If you happen to be in Penang next Friday, or know someone who is.

Well this aged well. My razor is still going well. Meanwhile Lecornu's prime ministership is already over. I could have bet a lettuce.

Some great photos here kathmandupost.com/visual-stori...