Yeah, people compare this legislation to smoking and, well, look at what the tobacco industry did in the medium term - took a hit and then brought out cigarettes flavoured like gummy bears

It plays into the MAGA worldview, “previous US administrations have been making it too hard for themselves, as America you can pick who you want to be friends with and because you’re the amazing USA everyone will be delighted”. It’s notable how little agency their worldview leaves other countries.

Has all the astronaut news made you feel all childish and excited again or does space not really do it for you? Secondary question, how far would go into space (Moon, Mars, further?)

Works best with a Yorkshire accent this one imo

Or, do the old Wenger tactic of playing a second team for the league cup and not playing any of the big players in it no matter how far you get - got us all the way to the final with that one year

Good lord, that is one of the angriest (not unjustified) FAQs I think I’ve ever read

“Have you heard that Ireland there’s a UBI for artists?” is one I’ve that’s annoyed me a fair bit recently, and unless it’s claiming everyone’s an artist, it ain’t a UBI

Oh I read that earlier this year and couldn’t stand it! Went into it hoping it would be as you described but couldn’t escape the feeling the author had signed on to write this book and then couldn’t find enough material so padded it with just anything they could remember on the ancient world.

A few years ago I was at a friend’s house and he claimed he had space for us all to sleep there - I discovered what he meant was a pool lilo on the floor in a freezing cold room. I wasn’t given bedding but was offered a crocheted throw to keep me warm. Truly awful

Napoleonic wars, seven years war, what’s the third, the thirty years war??

Yeah, that’s a real worry, I do think these email assistant apps miss that the main reason emails take up time is because there is a decision involved, someone asks you for something (a decision, a document, a recommendation) and that can’t be delegated away (or it can, but not very successfully).

No I don’t think that’s the read across, if having a smartphone is like heroin, then we should aim for no one to have smartphones.

Just passed my PhD viva yesterday and it is wild to me that I am now called doctor for the rest of my life. Nothing I can do can remove that. There’s no medical malpractice equivalent to knowing a lot about mud and that’s wild. I can say all the oceans are custard and still get to stay a doctor.

Also space being cold isn’t quite right, as there’s basically no particles it’s actually more like a really good insulator, so data centres in space is a terrible idea

Was about to say Macbeth, the only text I came out liking more having gone through the GCSE English meat grinder

Pale Fire! Glad someone else out there appreciates that brilliant baffling book!

And as I was just about to reply to this post, I’m claiming that one

I agree it looks cool as hell, but there are no normal shops there! Great if you want to buy a cashmere scarf, not so much if you want a choccy bar

And what is interesting is that this aspect to Western Civilisation that they seem so wedded to, is the very same part that they will object to being taught in schools as it “teaches kids to hate their country”

You’re just giving these great policy ideas away for free?

It’s a log plot, otherwise everything ends up disappearing in the exponential increases

As someone who eventually had to get rid of EU4 from my computer because I found it too much of a time sink - this news does not bode well for my productivity, it’s like hearing they’ve invented a better form of heroin.

Not a book but @ppfideas.bsky.social did a podcast on it in August that was very good, and they sometimes put out a reading list alongside their podcasts

Could that not be because people tend to dislike the government, and if the government has been of the right for most of the time, then polling will show unpopularity for them most of the time? Those spikes in right wing support on the longer term might coincide with election campaigns, but not sure

So you can’t get a photo of it as clearly, but at Whitechapel you have the bizarre phenomenon of Underground (district line) trains being overground and then you have to go down some stairs to the Overground (Windrush?) trains which are underground

Had something similar to this happen last night at a comedy gig, we had a row of French kids behind us and so a line would get a laugh and then occasionally another smaller laugh a second later as the joke was translated

I guess the thinking here is that it’s probably too late to mount anything like a public health campaign to save them, but a campaign aimed at reducing social media usage in most people maybe stops more people following this path?

They should train hawks to hunt drones and then release these in areas of outstanding natural beauty

Really neat episode, just listened to it while walking through London and, spookily enough, as @iandunt.bsky.social mentioned Jacob Rees Mogg, there he appeared, waiting at the traffic lights across from me. So hope you’re proud of that eldritch power this podcast now has.

Did you stick around for rock concert (ft. the Swedish cover of sultans of swing) after the church had stopped moving for the day?