Anyone who describes a mere twenty-hour period as a marathon in any negotiation where there are fundamental disagreements, including peace talks, shows they do not understand negotiations.

The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail), by Hieronymus Bosch, 1480-1505, 📸 by @alexbrandon

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

we had four years where we didn’t have to wake up and immediately check the news to see what new nightmare the president has threatened to inflict on the world every morning and 77 million people voted that we should have to do that again and I will never get over it

Nice of the BBC to devote the entirety of its Radio 4 pm news programme so far to agonising over one missing American pilot in Iran, not the almost 2,000 dead Iranians. #BBC #Iran

On the anniversary of the UK leaving the EU, it is worth hearing once again the many benefits of Brexit, clearly articulated by those who voted for it.

NEW: The Palantirisation of the UK military is a national security disaster. Peter Thiel is now the third wheel in the US-UK ‘special relationship’. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

I've managed to complete Dry January in just 16 hours, you lazy bastards.

I AM PREPARED TO DRAG THE COUNTRY INTO AN OIL WAR IN SOUTH AMERICA AND A RELIGIOUS WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST, IF IT MAKES YOU FORGET I FIDDLED WITH CHILDREN ON PEDO ISLAND. THANK YOU FOR YOUR LACK OF ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER.

Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage. www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

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Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Al Gore ripped the Trump administration to shreds. There is no time to waste. #ActOnClimate #climate #energy #renewables

Mindscape 320 | Solo: Complexity and the Universe. Our cosmos was once simple, and someday will be simple again. We currently live in the complicated, exciting era of universal history! Enjoy it while it lasts. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

I love "The hierarchy of disagreement". We collectively need to learn how to argue and disagree in a kinder, more efficient way. The whole article is worth reading. If you are pressed for time just read the pyramid and laugh at the lowest stage. Source: buff.ly/3q5dekQ

On 15 March 1939 Hitler and his deputy summoned the Czech President to Hitler’s residence in Berlin and then bullied him to submitting to a German invasion of his country. They drove him to the point of physical collapse, threatening him until he eventually signed his country’s death warrant.

These men aren't planning for peace. They are planning a heist. As bombs continue to fall on Kyiv, US collaborates with the invader, behind the backs of the invaded, to cut a deal to split the spoils of Ukraine's natural wealth. As distasteful a picture as you'll see on the international stage.