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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 1h

In retrospect the heroic move would have been to take the money and then to perform material considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sauds and religions.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 3h

Friend of mine who has had a fairly serious medical thing recently was complaining to his friend in the US about how work treated him in terms of support. The US friend, also sick, said work had been pretty good - they even let him go to all his radiotherapy appointments.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 3h

Yank tourism to Britain collapses to zero immediately

David Sligar @davidsligar.bsky.social · 13h

Attlee taught Labour to walk, now he watches on as they fly

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 5h

Guy who is obsessed with the Antichrist, encountering any form of culture: Getting a lot of 'antichrist' vibes from this...

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 5h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 5h

The last thing we need is a president in multiple parts

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 6h

A professional.

Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 6h

My favourite thing about the slop videos of a woman destroying a glass bridge with a boulder is that the implied cameraman just keeps filming passively. No attempt to back away and avoid falling in the canyon. No jerky shots as he panics.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 19h

11. LJUBLJANA

Ana Schnabl - Masterpiece (Mojstrovina), 2020

Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 19h

10. STOCKHOLM

August Stringberg - The Red Room (Röda rummet), 1879

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 19h

9. BRATISLAVA

Peter Pišťanek - Rivers of Babylon (Rivers of Babylon), 1991

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 19h

Combative priest named Lar Dowling featuring in the US news? We'll mark that down as an "Ireland mentioned"

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 1d

My favourite is Wolf Hall, I'm on record about this already

Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 1d

My least favourite television programme is the infinite loop of 3 second clips of decontextualised football, rugby and hurling they show on loop on upright advertising TVs in pubs now. Show something actually happening not just the idea of sport!

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

She presumably doesn't know this, coming from a columnist background, but when you're doing the news you have to spend a good amount of time and effort finding out the news before you write it up, you can't just put "woke nonsense has gone too far"

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 2d

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

I spent 10 years in England and relatively good pension systems (i.e. 'choose from these 200 funds' rather than 'do you want Risk 1, Risk 2 or Risk 3, we recommend Risk 1) exposed me a bit to the ETF concept, so I do find deemed disposal a bad idea, but I'd be more for grumbling than wildcat strikes

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Reposted by Karl

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 2d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

This was really stark watching the Irish Traitors a few weeks ago - it's sort of standard that they weed out by class and intelligence in the UK one for some reason so it was slightly disorienting when they didn't do that immediately in Ireland. We had more interpersonal bitterness though.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

That line in particular makes me suspicious that this is a very finely tuned social satire, but then I guess who else is going to storm the halls of power on behalf of tax-free ETFs other than a Gen Z accountant

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

The first revolution in history where the Young Turks are a grad scheme cohort at Deloitte.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2d

A fella on Irish personal finance Reddit is trying to foment a general strike over the way investment profits are taxed

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 3d

President Xi another fella authentic in his desire to kick a ball when available

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 3d

Wouldn't normally be one to hand it to the Princess of Wales but she loves having a go at sports when the opportunity arises.

Kate Middleton celebrating swinging a hurley

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 3d

Was trying to think if doing keepie uppies is always a positive in a political campaign. Think you need to seem like you like doing them, rather than doing them to send a message. Could be a negative if you seem like you're only pretending to love football like David Cameron or Aaron Bastani.

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Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 4d

Interviewed Lyse Doucet there a while ago about Afghanistan and being a foreign correspondent these days
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Lyse Doucet, foreign correspondent: ‘You have to keep returning to the heat and the dust. Really feel the story’

Veteran BBC journalist still gets `the pang’ to be at the heart of big stories

www.irishtimes.com

Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 4d

Considering he had a literally daily column for about 20 years this is an above-and-beyond commitment to providing copy

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