If you see this, post a bridge...

If you see this, post a bridge.

And there we have it. Another #weeknotes... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/26/w...

If you see this, post a bridge

One of Trump and Khan is in the pocket of extreme religious fundamentalists, and it's not Sadiq.

Has the world ended yet?

It’ll be quite embarrassing when Farage deports his Frinton-on-Sea landlady…

I tried to make an LLM a little less self-assured using an old management consulting model… mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/22/s...

A drive today down the A12 and back to visit family in Suffolk. One bridge in Essex over the motorway was adorned with five flags. The union jack, the St George cross, the Saltire, a Welsh dragon... ...and an Irish tricolour. 1/2

I have no memory of this song at all. #totp

Weeknotes time! mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/19/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

So let me get this right. We are going to let a rogue fascist state build (checks notes) *nuclear reactors* in the UK?

At some point I do think it would be a good idea if we better understood why a certain sort of man feels compelled to go out every so often to kick shit out of other men.

Every so often an album seeps deep into my bones. Anushka's Ancestry is one of them. I am listening to it endlessly. Big thanks to @gillespeterson.bsky.social for having them on his site recently! open.spotify.com/album/68P5ce...

Farage has had one major piece of policy implemented, and it's been, by almost all objective measures, a total car crash. It doesn't seem to have had any impact on his popularity.

Why do we tax dead people? Wouldn't it make more sense just to treat inheritance as another source of income to the living people who receive it?

The Nation pulls NO punches, from @espiers.bsky.social "There's no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign. Refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins “Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.”

The 747th episode of my #weeknotes… mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/12/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

I simply don't want to give feedback on every bloody interaction I have...

What is it with ad UI design at the moment? This wonky button from Microsoft's Copilot ad...

TIL If you ask Photoshop to GenAI a picture of a coin, almost always it will generate a picture of a bitcoin. Interesting questions about training data...

This is going to seem very random but I miss how the old bird app would have worked brilliantly for this: I’m looking for someone who can help me find information about how, and in what - if any - capacity, the Salvation Army might have been involved in adoption processes in London in the 1910s.

My shortest ever week note mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/05/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Is that a patriotic flag on his lapel? Hell no! It's a tawdry advert for the tawdry TV channel that pays him 100s of 1000s of pounds!

I thought leaving the EU was supposed to free us from this straight banana nonsense?

Good piece from @stephenkb.bsky.social Also brings to mind the challenges of Goodhart's and Campbell's laws. Make reducing costs the aim of an exercise and you *might* achieve the numbers, but will probably lose most of your original intent.

I just hope that @zackpolanski.bsky.social's Green populism doesn't follow the right wing populism play book of simply making shit up.

Infringe copyright!

I've had it for weeks, but with holidays etc this is the first time I've had undivided time to listen to the latest release from @unspunheroes.com

At the point at which the country really needs a politician, it appears we have an administrator.

This is a beautiful bit of writing from Sharon...

Are we supposed to be surprised that Carswell turns out to be a nasty racist?

The Telegraph usually pushes a line about a meritocratic society that would draw the conclusion that the reason white working class kids are underperforming is because they simply aren't very good. That they are starting to acknowledge socio-economic factors are at play is fascinating.

How long does it take a doctor to detect a major heart condition using a stethoscope? I imagine if it's "heart has stopped beating" it's significantly less than 15 seconds...

Trillions of dollars being spent. Less intelligence than a 1980s text adventure game.

And we are back to normal #weeknotes (episode 745) mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/08/29/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/... Thank you for writing this, @iandunt.bsky.social

Does anyone actually like using chatbots? You know, like in comparison to using a really well-designed website?

I'm getting very tired of racists being given airtime because of the excuse of "legitimate concerns". There are no legitimate reasons for racism. It's a bullshit and extremely dangerous ideology.

I'm leaving my current ISP. They wanted to increase my monthly payment by 20% and that was their final offer. So I'm moving. I got a call from them yesterday. The poor chap in their contact centre told me I was a very valuable customer and asked if I'd reconsidered moving suppliers. 1/3

Have been back in the UK for over 24 hours and yet to see a single St George flag anywhere...

Tell me you are a terrible judge of character without telling me you are a terrible judge of character...

I'm really not sure what I'd do without the help of GenAI.

Has anyone else had experience of Openreach pulling full fibre availability in their area? It was available 2 weeks ago at home, but no longer. A PITA because my contract's ending, I'm currently on a 150 Mbps FTC service that nobody now provides so the existing supplier (Sky) had me over a barrel.

The last summer holiday #weeknotes for 2025... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/08/22/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Before there was GenAI there was Tiger Balm Gardens...

How can anyone tell that a Generative AI project has already failed? Looks like they're using methods for known technologies to explore emergent areas.

"Robert Jenrick - an experiment in what national socialism would look like if it was designed by Laura Ashley" Acute observations from Ian.

Another travel #weeknotes mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/08/15/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Slightly diminish a band: The Teardrop Evaporates.