Adrian Boutel
@aboutel.bsky.social
Kiwi in Suisse Romande. Have practised law and taught philosophy. Wondering whether to do WSET 4.
Fewer people coming (by 30% in a year!), more people leaving. How to reduce net migration by making your country shit. on.ft.com/4p1MuLr
Net migration to UK plummets by two-thirds to 204,000
Immigration falls sharply alongside a slight rise in people leaving
on.ft.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Fewer people coming (by 30% in a year!), more people leaving. How to reduce net migration by making your country shit. on.ft.com/4p1MuLr
Geneva airport determined to help everyone get their steps in. At least, I assume that’s why they put bus gates at the far end of a long pier with no travelators…
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Geneva airport determined to help everyone get their steps in. At least, I assume that’s why they put bus gates at the far end of a long pier with no travelators…
A movie that takes place where you’re from letterboxd.com/film/what-we...
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 AM
A movie that takes place where you’re from letterboxd.com/film/what-we...
newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/20/k...
Mast year incoming: so many Kākāpō chicks expected scientists will have to let their parents look after them.
Mast year incoming: so many Kākāpō chicks expected scientists will have to let their parents look after them.
Kākāpō might not be the bird of the year, but this is the year of the kākāpō
Today from The Detail: Kākāpō numbers are recovering at such a rate that we are running out of pest-free islands to put them on.
newsroom.co.nz
November 22, 2025 at 6:52 AM
newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/20/k...
Mast year incoming: so many Kākāpō chicks expected scientists will have to let their parents look after them.
Mast year incoming: so many Kākāpō chicks expected scientists will have to let their parents look after them.
Time to bust out those old “Goodbye Pork Pie” t-shirts?
Can I please put in an early request that "Quiet, quiet, piggy" be inscribed on Trump's tombstone?
Thanks.
Thanks.
November 19, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Time to bust out those old “Goodbye Pork Pie” t-shirts?
Reposted by Adrian Boutel
Borders should delineate legal sovereignty but should not be barriers to movement.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Borders should delineate legal sovereignty but should not be barriers to movement.
People should just be able to move countries if they want to.
“But what about the criminals” do whatever you do to locally sourced criminals. Restricting *foreigners* does exactly nothing to keep your country criminal-free.
“But what about the criminals” do whatever you do to locally sourced criminals. Restricting *foreigners* does exactly nothing to keep your country criminal-free.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 11:59 AM
People should just be able to move countries if they want to.
“But what about the criminals” do whatever you do to locally sourced criminals. Restricting *foreigners* does exactly nothing to keep your country criminal-free.
“But what about the criminals” do whatever you do to locally sourced criminals. Restricting *foreigners* does exactly nothing to keep your country criminal-free.
Excellent. Now do the dollar bill!
If you haven't read @caity.bsky.social's definitive penny abolitionist story, which I will choose to give full credit for a rare good Trump policy, here you go:
On this solemn day, a blast from the past.
Thanks, @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social, for the reminder and the gift article link.
A wonderful read.
www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/m...
Thanks, @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social, for the reminder and the gift article link.
A wonderful read.
www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/m...
November 13, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Excellent. Now do the dollar bill!
More delay for the Wings of Winter.
Boeing takes near $5 billion hit on 777X program reut.rs/3L9q3oR
Boeing takes near $5 billion hit on 777X program
Boeing reported a charge of nearly $5 billion related to delays in its 777X jet program on Wednesday, but its quarterly loss narrowed on improved production and deliveries of commercial aircraft.
reut.rs
November 9, 2025 at 9:50 AM
More delay for the Wings of Winter.
All that murder, and he won’t even be a trillionaire. If those things vest I’ll eat a Tesla.
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
November 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
All that murder, and he won’t even be a trillionaire. If those things vest I’ll eat a Tesla.
See also: managed exchange rates are libertarianism, socialism is when you let people exchange things at market prices
November 6, 2025 at 6:43 AM
See also: managed exchange rates are libertarianism, socialism is when you let people exchange things at market prices
“Forrester's analysis found that using AI for financially driven layoffs can backfire: 55 percent of employers regret laying off workers because of AI. More people in charge of AI investment expect it to increase headcount (57 percent) than to decrease it (15 percent) over the next year.”
AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay
: Bosses banking on automation? 55% will regret those job cuts
www.theregister.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:28 PM
“Forrester's analysis found that using AI for financially driven layoffs can backfire: 55 percent of employers regret laying off workers because of AI. More people in charge of AI investment expect it to increase headcount (57 percent) than to decrease it (15 percent) over the next year.”
Caught the extra innings again this morning. Apparently the rest of the game was exciting as well?
November 2, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Caught the extra innings again this morning. Apparently the rest of the game was exciting as well?
Holy crap
“They coldbloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network said, adding that the RSF had transformed hospitals “into human slaughterhouses”.
“They coldbloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network said, adding that the RSF had transformed hospitals “into human slaughterhouses”.
FT
The latest UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, comment and analysis from the Financial Times optimised for your device on app.ft.com.
app.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Holy crap
“They coldbloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network said, adding that the RSF had transformed hospitals “into human slaughterhouses”.
“They coldbloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network said, adding that the RSF had transformed hospitals “into human slaughterhouses”.
I thought this was just an abstract paradox.
October 30, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I thought this was just an abstract paradox.
Pas de subventions pour les commerces de la #ruedecarouge qui font ceci :
October 30, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Pas de subventions pour les commerces de la #ruedecarouge qui font ceci :
Reposted by Adrian Boutel
There are no words for Sudan-- the "blood bath" conclusion marks the complete failure of the international community. This is a horrific situation & like so many other wars, I doubt there will be justice for these survivors & their families.
Sudan siege ends in bloodbath despite pleas for mercy
Evidence emerges of atrocities committed by the paramilitary RSF after it seized control of El Fasher
www.ft.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:41 PM
There are no words for Sudan-- the "blood bath" conclusion marks the complete failure of the international community. This is a horrific situation & like so many other wars, I doubt there will be justice for these survivors & their families.
This is right, of course, but the results do offer a corrective to anyone who thinks (or would like customers to think) that humanlike reasoning somehow emerges from all the associative inference. In particular, “chain of thought” promoting makes no exception.
Psychologists running empirical studies to rediscover engineering design choices is such a strange genre of papers. By all means, run studies on LLM judgments -- but what else than lexical co-occurence and statistical priors would they be based on??
Evidence that even when LLMs produce similar results to humans, they “rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification”
October 27, 2025 at 5:48 AM
This is right, of course, but the results do offer a corrective to anyone who thinks (or would like customers to think) that humanlike reasoning somehow emerges from all the associative inference. In particular, “chain of thought” promoting makes no exception.
Reposted by Adrian Boutel
in the first part of Luttwak's Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, he challenges armchair generals to organize a moderately large trip to the beach. After walking through all of the ways it goes wrong, he then drops "now imagine people are shooting at you"
October 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM
in the first part of Luttwak's Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, he challenges armchair generals to organize a moderately large trip to the beach. After walking through all of the ways it goes wrong, he then drops "now imagine people are shooting at you"
I’m going to charitably assume this is all a Saint-Ronald-would-never gotcha, and not people getting negatively polarised by Trump’s (absurdly high and chaotic) tariffs into stanning neoliberal globalisation.
Here’s the original clip of Ronald Reagan from April 25, 1987, where he delivered a complete and total rebuke against tariffs. Trump's calling Reagan’s words here “FAKE” and “fraudulent.” They’re 100% real. And the original clip is actually far worse for Trump, as much is left out of the ad:
October 24, 2025 at 6:32 AM
I’m going to charitably assume this is all a Saint-Ronald-would-never gotcha, and not people getting negatively polarised by Trump’s (absurdly high and chaotic) tariffs into stanning neoliberal globalisation.
Only thing missing from this is a Greens surge. Otherwise, (4th) Tory implosion, (3rd) you can’t beat the right by tacking right, (2nd) racists losing, (1) I’m a cel-tic nation, get me out of here.
October 24, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Only thing missing from this is a Greens surge. Otherwise, (4th) Tory implosion, (3rd) you can’t beat the right by tacking right, (2nd) racists losing, (1) I’m a cel-tic nation, get me out of here.