Thread. 🧵 (1/x) On the superiority of water as the primary decontaminant for tear gas and peppery spray on skin and eyes. To make it clear to people, this is a thread. Some of you are not clear on the concept. I will reply this with another post and mark it with a number in (x). And so forth. (1)

BREAKING: “in my 24th year of my quest to settle the planet Mars, I have just been informed of a basic fact of celestial mechanics.”

SpaceX shifts focus from something that it will never do on Mars to something it will never do on the Moon.

Proper pudding after a deep fat fried pizza.

Mathematicians will be familiar with the Erdős Number (1) which indicates how closely one collaborated with the famous mathematician Paul Erdős. British politics now needs an Epstein number. Anyone with an Epstein number of 1 is deemed anathema. (1) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%...

1. What I'm about to post is going to sound egotistical - because it is - but it has a point, so please go with it for moment: I've learned over time that, at least in my own communities, I can no longer rely on how people approach and treat me as an indicator of their own personality.

AI is taking and not giving and it's crushing open-source software projects. Just a month ago, Tailwinds fired 75 percent of its engineers. Why?

Lately I'm regretting that we didn't talk about space data centers in A City on Mars, but tbh the idea just seemed so transparently silly. Now Musk and apparently the CNA (www.reuters.com/science/chin...) are talking about it.

If you were looking for an exposition of what British values *could* be you could do a lot worse than Ian McKellen wielding Shakespeare like a rapier.

Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.

Snooker won't be the same without him. May he finally find out where the cue ball's going.

Happy Anniversary to those who celebrate cat attorneys.

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/grow #smbc

13/ If Europe wants to build systems that are independent of US big tech it should promote interoperable open source infrastructure rather than specific companies. This open source infra can then also be used by the rest of the world and Americans who don’t like big tech either

Premium Post: This is the Hater's Guide To Oracle: an evil company that profits off of strongarming its customers to boost its declining revenues. It needs $150bn more to complete its data centers, and if OpenAI can't pay its bills, Oracle runs out of money. www.wheresyoured.at/haters-guide...

A recent cartoon for @newscientist.com. p.s. my new book of science cartoons, ‘Physics for Cats’ is out now. Links at www.tomgauld.com

I’m reposting this again because I can’t tell you how much joy it gives me!

It’s hard to imagine someone more universally enjoyed than Catherine O’Hara where the opinions range from “I like her and her work” to “I love her and her work” and that’s a pretty good legacy

By the time you hit 50, you’ll regret more of the things you didn’t do than the things you did. Adjust your life choices now, before it’s too late.

48/ NHS Workforce FTE Data November - This on the relative sizes of the NHS staff groups in the latest month - Managers and Senior Managers together make up only 3% of NHS staff - public.tableau.com/views/Englan...

This is the BEST explanation I have seen so far.

Imagine being so corrupt and authoritarian even Sepp Blatter thinks you've gone too far. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

NEW Another death in Minnesota The significance of the killing of Alex Pretti By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Looks like the USD’s days as the global reserve currency might be numbered. Can’t think why.

@jvl.bsky.social see thread - agree?

1/ I've been thinking a lot about the US "This is not who we are" discourse. Trying to think through it. Note: This is all so far out of my lane my car may as well be in a nearby lake, so just skip this thread if you're looking for actual expertise or wisdom.

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

Incredible

But you can sink it

As the article does actually explain, we do not have student loans - we have a sort of graduate tax in which 9% of earnings above a threshold is paid for 30 years. That's the calculation students need to make. i.e. forget about every paying it back. 1/2. www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...

I know some people are cynical about everything now and just say “eh, what do you expect” at every new low, but really this is just astonishing and outrageous, and I don’t think we should shrug at that www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Who will you pick? Will it be contestant 1, Mr rapey no-socks, contestant 2, who missed his last two how-to-stand lessons, contestant 3, who’s come to repossess your TV, or contestant 4, the crash test suit manikin.

Fuck off

Very grim. www.ft.com/content/c894...

The US granted visas to Jews but only allowed 30,000 in from Germany a year. You had to wait for your number to come up. Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵

was briefly so excited reading this until I realised he meant Davos

Frankly: it is ridiculous that Russia (population circa 145 million, awful demographics, GDP of about the same size as Italy) is a security threat to Europe that requires US help to manage. But it currently is. Reversing that is the first aim. And very very achievable.

Letter in Times today

Why is Donald Trump changing his mind every five minutes and saying completely mad stuff an embarrassment for Keir Starmer? It feels like it should chiefly be seen as an embarrassment for the United States.

1/ So, should the EU retaliate against Trump's Greenland tariff threats? There are roughly three schools of thought, each progressively more interesting than the last. A brief tour through the logic of escalation and deterrence: 🧵

“And I can’t understand the reason that America collapsed”

Does anyone have a connection to Ben Affleck? I want him on Better Offline.

New Leica advert is wild

Has anyone thought to create a new map projection for Trump? One which just make the USA look more massive.

1/ Something which I don't think gets articulated clearly often enough is that a system where countries generally respect international sovereignty and territorial integrity is not pure charity or morality by the United States, but in its direct interests. Despite it being the strongest bear.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Tokyo's Snail meow Print Club is now open. 12 cats over 12 months. Order by Jan 28th to get January's Blep kitty. (see pic) Same price for international orders. Opt out at anytime! www.infinitebacon.com/printclub Thank you!

If only there were some kind of useful lesson here about deploying more senior skills in triage outside of strike periods www.ft.com/content/c928...