In a spectacular piece of comic timing, the Polish Department for Foreigners has invited me to attend an appointment about my residence application the week I'm leaving Poland. Real useful. Great work all round.

Gah, chasing down my own dumb errors is annoying, but chasing down other people's is downright infuriating

The sheer sense of entitlement of a member of parliament of whatever party resigning their seat, on assumption that electors will then obediently vote for their chosen successor. Taking an electorate for granted.

Okay listing Liz Truss here like some kind of natural disaster is quite funny

Evergreen skeet

"The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled ... Have a row, push back, make arguments, bring people along. Standing up and being counted can't always be workshopped."

i know going outside is the first step to being less tired, burned out, and crabby--but i am currently too tired, burned out, and crabby to go outside

very unpleasant to see this many people voting Reform, knew it was coming but still unpleasant to witness

Iris is a whole vibe

Thursday

GNU Terry Pratchett, whose words will echo long after we, and our children, and our children’s children have moved on thank you, as always, for making me a better person (quote from Reaper Man)

If this time travel experiment works, I should be able to go from here and now and reappea—

I know I routinely brag about my neighborhood and you’re probably tired of hearing about it BUT LOOK AT MY NEW NEIGHBOR

6) Providing them a little extra suggestions is working well. Let's do more. 7) And more. 8) Actually, let's make the site mostly be extra suggestions in infinite scroll. 9) Hooray, we optimized. 10) Step back and realize you've done something awful [this step doesn't happen]

i’ve worked in tech more than 20 years. it has never been more ridiculous.

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Sad and long-expected news: Michael Tilson Thomas died last night at 81, nearly five years after first being diagnosed with brain cancer. This will take some time to process. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

I’m sorry, but bluesky is THRIVING…

pal just mentioned having to buy tails for his wedding and I asked if the bride would be dressed as Knuckles, suspect I'll be riding that high for 12-24 hours

The thing about the right is, they want to be able to attack their opponents as if politics were an existential battle of good versus evil they are on the right side of, but demand to be treated by them as if politics were a good faith disagreement among gentlemen about optimising the tax code.

A shocking new poll result: Many Americans somehow don't have a favorite dinosaur. And only 6% give the correct answer (triceratops). Check out YouGov's new polling on Americans and dinosaurs: yougovamerica.substack.com/p/whats-your...

I was thinking this morning how both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan would have been delighted to see a Westward-looking, centre-right party defeat a pro-Russian autocrat in a former Eastern Bloc country.

christ, not to relitigate It a decade on but it's hard to watch people happily waving Hungarian flags and EU flags at the same time and not think "oh right, almost like it's not that fucking hard to realise that you can have and cherish multiple, complimentary identities"

PSA Back in the days of Brexit there was this joke reply to the boast that we held all the cards: "EU lays down a royal flush. UK looks at own cards: Mr Bun the Baker, Pikachu, a Shadowmage, a fireball spell, and the Fool" Often (mis)attributed to me, it was by @johnnypixels.bsky.social

Perfect analysis thread. 10/10. No notes.

Always exciting to see the Avignon Papacy in the news

Quand la SNCF faisait de la pub sur le tour de France avec une camionnette à l'allure TGV sur base C 35 CITROEN .. Fourgon Renault Master ''1'' Livrée TGV pse Orange

“go back to the moon but this time we have really good cameras” was a fantastic idea

"i have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working." The Astronauts truly representing us all up there.

*gestures vaguely at like the whole of Quantum Mechanics*

Why do you have to call me or like this? Isn't it already bad enough that it's Monday morning?

harry potter is the easiest case of being unable to separate the art from the artist that we have and obviously you should not be giving jk rowling your money or your eyeballs there is a vast quantity of entertainment out there where your money won’t go directly to hurting your trans friends

Have deleted the Trump-threatening-the-moon joke as it was confusingly plausible for some.

I don't normally subscribe to the "German has a word for it" thing because all languages can invent and borrow new words! That said, I can't stop thinking about "hobbyless" as an insult since I saw it a few days ago, so here you go It promotes a growth mindset!! www.tumblr.com/abbiistabbii...

It costs US military $1 to $3Billion a day inflicting death & destruction in Iran President Eisenhower:"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies...a theft from those who hunger & are not fed, those who are cold & are not clothed." bsky.app/profile/wash...

MY LIFE NOT SO EASY, CELLO HEAVY

I have a scientific publishing joke but it… [Please log in via your institution to read the rest of this joke, or pay $159.99 for one-time access.]

Narratively having Ever Given getting stuck in 2021 to set up Hormuz in 2026 is great foreshadowing. You want your audience to understand the basics of international shipping in a lower stakes context so you drop the real plot without a lot of saggy exposition about the minutiae of cargo logistics.

To mark International Women's Day, meet Lt Cmdr. Madeleine Barclay. First Officer on HMS Fidelity. To my knowledge, the first woman to officially serve as First Officer on a Royal Navy vessel deployed on combat duty. Achieving this involved a three-way war between Navy, SOE and the WRNS /1 🧵 #IWD

This seems entirely fine on all sides. Would be hilariawful if this is what triggers the AI bubble collapse

Icarus at 300ft

I understand why chatbot cheating happens but every time I read about it I want to gently remind everyone that the point of schoolwork is not for the submission to exist. Teachers are not just greedy for more essays or solved equations. The point is to do the work WITH YOUR OWN BRAIN, FOR LEARNING.

I am sorry for starting discourse. I was grumpy.

Oh, the grand old duke of york He ██████████████████ He ██████████████████ And he ██████████████████

Come, Sir Andrew, there’s no remedy

its amazing how chatgpt knows everything about subjects I know nothing about, but is wrong like 40% of the time in things im an expert on. not going to think about this any further

All those conferences I have participated in with top officials with very concerned faces going on and on about soft power and countering Chinese influence, Russian disinformation, it is all terrible, etc… Guys. Fund. The. BBC.