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@baronvonevilton.bsky.social
'I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards'
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I am greatly encouraged that Lars Lokke Rasmussen - Denmark's foreign minister - looks like the sort of chap who could avert a schism in the international order.
January 14, 2026 at 5:51 PM
I am greatly encouraged that Lars Lokke Rasmussen - Denmark's foreign minister - looks like the sort of chap who could avert a schism in the international order.
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"I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.”
January 19, 2026 at 12:01 PM
"I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.”
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“We fucked up, but also we fucked up. Show some solidarity”
I am not here for Europeans telling me Americans don't know how crazy things are. The Nazis are killing people over here at the moment so we're busy but thanks for the input. I had hoped for solidarity but I suppose I'll have to settle for sneering condescension instead.
January 19, 2026 at 11:53 AM
“We fucked up, but also we fucked up. Show some solidarity”
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It's going to be the universities that can guarantee that there is no AI component of their courses that will win in this game. What employer wants a graduate who hasn't done the work? What student wants a university that doesn't have lecturers giving the courses?
Big announcement from @manchester.ac.uk today:
"The University of Manchester has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft, becoming the first university in the world to give Microsoft 365 Copilot access and training to every student and colleague."
#GenerativeAI #Research #Manchester
"The University of Manchester has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft, becoming the first university in the world to give Microsoft 365 Copilot access and training to every student and colleague."
#GenerativeAI #Research #Manchester
World-first AI partnership between The University of Manchester and Microsoft announced
The University of Manchester becomes first university in the world to provide Microsoft 365 Copilot access and training to all students and staff.65,000 staff and students will receive full Microsoft ...
www.manchester.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 11:33 AM
It's going to be the universities that can guarantee that there is no AI component of their courses that will win in this game. What employer wants a graduate who hasn't done the work? What student wants a university that doesn't have lecturers giving the courses?
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This was obvious after J6. Once someone attempts an insurrection they are not your party colleague but an enemy of the state and you should want them jailed for life as a minimum.
The US has a 25th Amendment and an impeachment process but because cowardice is the defining characteristic of modern right wing politics, neither of these things will be exercised, even as this is the most glaring example of their being needed.
If this text is real (no reason to think it isn’t) we have to accept that the only solution here is Congress doing its job. He cannot be a president in this deteriorating mental state. But Congress won’t act.
We’re f*cked
We’re f*cked
January 19, 2026 at 7:39 AM
This was obvious after J6. Once someone attempts an insurrection they are not your party colleague but an enemy of the state and you should want them jailed for life as a minimum.
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There’s a small counterpoint to the argument that Starmer still has to be nice and diplomatic with Trump even while he’s hitting us with tariffs and threatening a NATO member because he wants to play Napoleon: it isn’t fucking working
January 19, 2026 at 9:39 AM
There’s a small counterpoint to the argument that Starmer still has to be nice and diplomatic with Trump even while he’s hitting us with tariffs and threatening a NATO member because he wants to play Napoleon: it isn’t fucking working
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Rumours circulating around Westminster that the next Reform defections could be Davros, Skeletor, Saruman the White, and Mark Francois.
January 18, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Rumours circulating around Westminster that the next Reform defections could be Davros, Skeletor, Saruman the White, and Mark Francois.
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christ, at least Chamberlain rearmed
January 19, 2026 at 9:35 AM
christ, at least Chamberlain rearmed
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This is a huge problem: humans are not wired to cope with this daily torrent of disgust & dismay. It's exhausting & unbalancing.
It's tempting just to switch off the news. But that surrenders the political arena - & the lives of all those it affects - to the hooligans & vandals who are trashing it.
It's tempting just to switch off the news. But that surrenders the political arena - & the lives of all those it affects - to the hooligans & vandals who are trashing it.
I'm perfectly aware this is by far not the worst thing he's done, but Trump's constant presence - day after day after day - in the lives and headspaces of hundreds of millions of people (billions?), in the US and outside, is so taxing. Every morning, we wake up and have to think about this asshole.
January 19, 2026 at 8:49 AM
This is a huge problem: humans are not wired to cope with this daily torrent of disgust & dismay. It's exhausting & unbalancing.
It's tempting just to switch off the news. But that surrenders the political arena - & the lives of all those it affects - to the hooligans & vandals who are trashing it.
It's tempting just to switch off the news. But that surrenders the political arena - & the lives of all those it affects - to the hooligans & vandals who are trashing it.
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in the plus side, watching the president of the United States destroy the entire geopolitical order because he didn't get a shiny award has successfully cured all my hangups about subtle character motivation in writing
January 19, 2026 at 8:10 AM
in the plus side, watching the president of the United States destroy the entire geopolitical order because he didn't get a shiny award has successfully cured all my hangups about subtle character motivation in writing
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The Nobel Peace Prize becoming so prestigious that wars are fought over a head of state coveting it is some real monkey paw stuff for Alfred Nobel.
January 19, 2026 at 8:47 AM
The Nobel Peace Prize becoming so prestigious that wars are fought over a head of state coveting it is some real monkey paw stuff for Alfred Nobel.
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This sort of stuff reminds me of a lot of the Brexit process, you know? It doesn’t matter if it’s for a domestic audience or not, other people do have agency.
I am one of the frankly hundreds of people who live outside the United States of America but can read English.
I am one of the frankly hundreds of people who live outside the United States of America but can read English.
i feel like Americans don't get the level of eye-rolling this is getting from Europe
January 19, 2026 at 8:14 AM
This sort of stuff reminds me of a lot of the Brexit process, you know? It doesn’t matter if it’s for a domestic audience or not, other people do have agency.
I am one of the frankly hundreds of people who live outside the United States of America but can read English.
I am one of the frankly hundreds of people who live outside the United States of America but can read English.
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From the archives...
January 18, 2026 at 6:58 AM
From the archives...
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Reform's vetting procedures:
January 18, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Reform's vetting procedures:
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Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff.
Game on.
Game on.
January 18, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff.
Game on.
Game on.
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I sort of feel sorry for Martin, who talked a huge game about fantasy and other people’s world-building, but who has embarked on what is visibly a project too ambitious for anyone to actually ever finish.
George R.R. Martin has said that if he never completes Game of Thrones sequel Winds of Winter (or the book after that), there's no plan for anyone else to step in. Instead, his Song of Ice and Fire series simply "won't be finished."
Game of Thrones Writer George R.R. Martin Says There's No Plan if He Dies Before Completing Winds of Winter, and the Series Simply 'Won't Be Finished'
bit.ly
January 19, 2026 at 12:23 AM
I sort of feel sorry for Martin, who talked a huge game about fantasy and other people’s world-building, but who has embarked on what is visibly a project too ambitious for anyone to actually ever finish.
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It continues to be a bad failure that essentially there's a policy debate that is obvious to you if you read a business newspaper OR the gov dot uk website or the MI5 threat update OR a decent policy Substack is basically invisible on the BBC and in 90 per cent of Commons debates.
Maybe we can, oh I dunno, start to have a conversation with voters about this? The problem is not going to go away.
The way politics is being conducted by both the tories and Labour seems surreal to me. We have a lunatic in the WH who simply cannot be relied on to be an ally, indeed the opposite, we need to spend a ton of cash on defence and no-one seems to think voters might need to be, er, readied for all this
January 18, 2026 at 1:54 PM
It continues to be a bad failure that essentially there's a policy debate that is obvious to you if you read a business newspaper OR the gov dot uk website or the MI5 threat update OR a decent policy Substack is basically invisible on the BBC and in 90 per cent of Commons debates.
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I just saw an AI video of ICE agents chasing a viking in a bathtub on wheels rolling down a street. People are sharing it thinking it's real. People are sharing it saying they don't care it's AI.
It would be far funnier to just...post the prompt. We have imaginations.
It would be far funnier to just...post the prompt. We have imaginations.
January 18, 2026 at 1:40 PM
I just saw an AI video of ICE agents chasing a viking in a bathtub on wheels rolling down a street. People are sharing it thinking it's real. People are sharing it saying they don't care it's AI.
It would be far funnier to just...post the prompt. We have imaginations.
It would be far funnier to just...post the prompt. We have imaginations.
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if someone had said to young me that in the future i would be eternally stalked on a computer by the company i ordered a sandwich from i would have stabbed that person
January 16, 2026 at 9:21 PM
if someone had said to young me that in the future i would be eternally stalked on a computer by the company i ordered a sandwich from i would have stabbed that person
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Good to see the Greens come out for increased defence spending and UK-built nuclear launch capacity.
When someone literally tells you they plan to do populism it's very much on you if you end up falling for it.
When someone literally tells you they plan to do populism it's very much on you if you end up falling for it.
When we said NATO wasn't working we were derided.
When we said a nuclear weapons system relying on the US is dangerous we were called stupid.
The truth is the establishment are more interested in kissing US feet than keeping the UK safe.
It's time for a rethink.
When we said a nuclear weapons system relying on the US is dangerous we were called stupid.
The truth is the establishment are more interested in kissing US feet than keeping the UK safe.
It's time for a rethink.
January 18, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Good to see the Greens come out for increased defence spending and UK-built nuclear launch capacity.
When someone literally tells you they plan to do populism it's very much on you if you end up falling for it.
When someone literally tells you they plan to do populism it's very much on you if you end up falling for it.
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When are people going to be held accountable for the nonsense slop and puff they emit.
January 18, 2026 at 9:19 AM
When are people going to be held accountable for the nonsense slop and puff they emit.
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This is the kind of thing that gets you blocked by celebrities.
January 18, 2026 at 10:03 AM
This is the kind of thing that gets you blocked by celebrities.