i'm in Wiltshire too and i'm yet to find some of these reputed beautiful parts, i gotta say

awkward turtle dot gif

i don't think the gif format allows for six straight consecutive hours of frames.

it does look really pretty in that area, though, and given that we were effectively unlimited in where we could live, i am not entirely convinced that we did.

that line must be a nightmare, the main GWR route between London and Bristol is bad enough. i looked at moving to that area but the thought of having to rely on two train lines was too much to bear.

I wouldn't mind the trains to Bristol being cancelled or delayed so often if the trains to London were cancelled or delayed with the same frequency, but heaven forbid somebody in London be late for work eh.

i really "enjoyed" your episode you smeghead

the Orson Wells of Cyberrats, some say

CYBERRATS! CYBERRATS! CYBERRATS!

fuck fuck fuck going to listen right now. Rob Grant's death has spurred this on for me.

this wasn't the skeet i wanted, there was one with a link to the Internet Archive copy of the PDF, but @systemmastery.bsky.social have you ever covered this game? would you consider looking at it? i think you'd find it interesting.

what is a coachella, i feel old

i mean there's also the typographically distinct minus sign to add to that mix, which i can't reproduce on my phone. it's between a hyphen and an en-dsh in length, and also at a slightly different vertical position.

a hyphen is correctly used to tie together to inseparable parts of a word, such as "well-done" for a steak, or such as where there isn't room on a line for a long word. in that case, the tradition in Br.Eng. is to break on the syllable.

in old books at least, the Br.Eng. version is word—word, whereas Am.Eng. uses word – word. sometimes you would also use an em-dash to obfuscate, redact, or censor, such "in 17— I told Mr. T— to f— off."

that's quite a story. worthy of Shelley herself. the hubris of man, the revenge of man's creation.

watching Frankenstein now, this film is visually gorgeous and viscerally horrifying. it lacks something that the book has, but has something that the book lacks. really interesting to see it when the text is so fresh in my mind.

or it could be like a punishment, like, "look! all these people you hated got to go to the Good Place, and you're in the Bad Place! also it's kickin' time."

on the one hand, kicking fascists in the afterlife feels like a great reward for a life well-led.

on the other hand, why are there fascists in the good bit of the afterlife.

important theological question: when punks get to the Good Place, are there fascists there for them to kick?

it must be so liberating to knowingly make a terrible terrible film

here we go THRASH (2026) jfc

Lathe Is Here
Lathe Lifts Us Up Where We Belong
Can't Help Falling in Lathe
When a Man Lathes a Woman
The Look of Lathe
You've Got to Hide Your Lathe Away
Tainted Lathe
Whole Lotta Lathe
Baby Lathe
Lathe Train
You Can't Hurry Lathe

there's a lot of songs about "love" that you can just replace with "lathe" actually

I Will Always Lathe You
Lathe on an Elevator
All You Need Is Lathe
Lathe Shack
Crazy Little Thing Called Lathe
You Give Lathe a Bad Name
Lathe Rollercoaster
Ruby, Don't Take Your Lathe to Town
Can't Buy Me Lathe

Travis's Flowers in the Window
Travis's Turn, a song for people with lathes
Richard Ashcroft's A Song for the Lathers, while we're at it

i do love both of those albums. i sing the refrain from Cemetery Gates every time i go past a cemetery.

playlist for DIY enthusiasts:

Elton John's I'm Still Sanding
anything by The Carpenters
Bandsaw on the Run
something in the drill genre
something from Pantera's Far Beyond Driven (IYKYK)
something by MC Hammer
something by Nine Inch Nails
I Saw Three Ships
Sir Mixalot's I Like Big (Water)Butts

i knew you'd be able to tell me the answer, Fede.

i'm a hopelessly naive and ignorant person, obviously.

i dunno what's changed, really, from the dream of those post-war projects of international cooperation. i know i'm ignoring vast chunks of the world here but honestly the world has benefited from actual cooperation, and it massively disbenefits from people saying trade is bad, actually.