The Animal and the Machine

We’ve had a pair of houses for 1,000 years and the current one is heading towards 200.
As is our cultural heritage, we absolutely need to keep it as is. My larger point is that despite this, our culture of democracy is bigger and more important. We can have both.
Say we doubled the MP’s. Then we should use the House of Lords temporarily as the House of Commons.
Ultimately, my point is all the reasons for ‘no’ are actually excuses to overwhelm the push for reform, as applied to losing and argument on merit.

2026-02-12 16:28:05 GMT

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The agency problem for Britain is that the government that has the power to reform the electoral process got elected into power via the old system.
I would like:
A) Preferential voting, so I can first positively vote for a candidate I do want before secondarily voting against the one I really don’t want.
B) Proportional representation via top up
C) Overseas British as a seat <- this is new from you, thank you.
Dumb excuses like ‘they won’t fit in the building’ means the building is wrong, not democracy. This all can be worked out.

2026-02-02 07:57:38 GMT

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We are animals and we’ve evolved to be really tight on energy use. Our brains are energy expensive.
The minimal energy approach is to just bury your head in sand and change nothing, especially as it minimal consequences.

2026-02-01 22:30:58 GMT

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I like the idealism, but it’s wrong.
It’s not bullets or seeds.
It bullets then seeds.
Or seeds then death by Putin’s bullets.
You go for the gun, then you ask the other person to be nice and share half the seeds. And they do. And you both survive.
You can always share. You are rarely shared with. It’s not about power over others. It about power over yourself.

2025-12-15 18:07:06 GMT

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Feds drop bribery charge after bribe.

2025-09-30 20:51:04 GMT

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Tap me for an optional subscription fee.

2025-09-04 07:21:11 GMT

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To be clear. I am not anti-corporation or anti-algo. In fact I’m pro these and think they should be on the Fediverse.
What I’m religiously against is them and their algos BEING the platform.

2025-07-20 10:29:49 GMT

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Physics.
Where the ordinary is extraordinary.

2025-05-12 07:45:11 GMT

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children can’t self regulate like an adult. The bedtime is because the child needs it. You wouldn’t ask ‘do you change the nappy/diaper of a baby and what is life not doing that.
Everything is for the child or it’s harmful.
That all said, well being is a shared resource. It’s in the child’s interest to have a happy adult as much is it is for the adult to be happy.
It is easy for those on the outside to slice up things and look at them in isolation but I’m here to tell you that you fundamentally can’t do that. Each day isn’t a reset. It’s the endless continuous roll from one day to another and today’s energy very much relates to the previous day and the night between.

2025-04-12 23:21:30 GMT

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Joy is resistance.

2025-01-02 10:49:37 GMT

Dear Americans. Elon is switching his focus to Europe. This means he thinks he’s conquered America. I hope this pisses you off because it should.
Get loud and proud please.

2024-12-28 10:04:38 GMT

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If Fico does cut the power ton #Ukraine during a Russian invasion and war, it will be one of those things that won’t be forgiven.
The €6bn in EU grants might also have a hiccup.

2024-12-04 16:54:19 GMT

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#Ukraine in #NATO, yes 👍🏻 do it now.
As part of this however, it is a bait and switch narrative pushed by #Scholz to look like a 90’s peace maker. The plan is only good for those who want to sit in a burning house while saying ‘everything is ok’.
A European peacekeeping idea is total nonsense. Here is why:
• Russia would test it.
• Peace keepers would have to be 100% comfortable with killing Russian troops via terms of engagement before they are deployed. If we are comfortable shooting and killing Russians, why the fuck wouldn’t we do it now? They are the fucking enemy invaders!
• Scholz would say ‘no shooting Russians’. So then there are no peace keepers. Until I see NATO shooting down bombers that fly in our airspace without permission, I won’t believe it, because they will bomb our peace keepers to get us to leave.
• Is Europe ready to deploy enough troops to peace keep a 2000km border? We’re taking all of Europe’s armies here!
• What if Russia pulls all its troops out and Ukraine could just walk in and retake its land. Are we going to say ‘no’ and shoot Ukrainians? WTF are we agreeing to here? To make European armies into Russian border troops? WTF?!
• Every peace keeping endeavour has been a bloody mess on those participating even if it was worth it to prevent genocide. If it’s going to be a bloody mess, let’s just finish Russia in Ukraine with our planes.
Russia LOVES the rules based order applying rules to itself because it can just ignore them. I could not WTF hard enough on this idea of European peace keepers and as Hungry would block the NATO bid, it’s just bait for a switch.
WTF Olaf!

2024-10-31 08:05:07 GMT

There is a Shoigu appointees pogrom going on in Russia. This is a faction being wiped out. This stuff is dangerous for Russia as it could trigger a coup, although one on this is unlikely. Reasons are probably a consolation of power and rewards for loyalists.
Russia is Feudal.
#Ukraine

2024-10-28 08:24:49 GMT

We are looking at a total sell off of Russia’s assets.
The US and allies should realise that we need to help #Ukraine beat Russia quickly before he sells the Crown Jewels, because Putin will sell actual nukes to Iran if he thinks it will help him win the war.

2024-10-09 07:08:11 GMT

Why is Hungry still in the #EU and #NATO?
Putin loves having a shill on the inside to disrupt the organisation… but he’d much prefer to break up the organisation. Given that he’s only bought Victor Orban, we’d be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Putin wants it, so we’re not doing it.

2024-09-28 23:45:36 GMT

Notes for readers:
• #Kursk is already a success and in multiple ways from returned #Ukraine PoWs to redirecting enemy troops.
• Although an offensive, as the territorial objective is to replace Ukrainian border troops with a river, it is fundamentally part of the 2024 Year of Defence.
• It will go down in history as one of the most brilliant moves in any war. It will be in textbooks to be studied.

2024-09-22 08:34:44 GMT

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#Ukraine has reach. It is now hitting things that are being protected by AA that would have shot down their slower prop-plane drones.
This is a new capability, which is why it’s hitting such juicy targets.

2024-09-07 12:10:17 GMT

Russian works by annihilation. It is dropping glide bombs to wipe out the town of Sudzha. What’s different is that this is a Russian town in Kursk. Russia is bombing Russia and that same bomb isn’t hitting Sumy in #Ukraine. 🇺🇦
So the next time you hear someone say the Kursk operation was a failure, answer with “No. It IS a success and it’s a success every single day, repeatedly, throughout the day.”
There is a house in #Sumy that wasn’t bombed today thanks to the #Kursk operation.
Slava Ukraini

2024-08-07 08:18:48 GMT

Operational security (op sec) on Kursk (Russian side of the Sumy border) is solid. We are only hearing from the Russian side, so facts may vary, but complaints from soldiers is fairly reliable.
It would appear that #Ukraine went with sufficient air cover, with the effect of sucking in the local Russian planes and helicopters and downing them.
FYI, I have nothing that isn’t public and even if I did I wouldn’t share it.

2024-08-01 19:04:52 GMT

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Totally.
To white people who don’t understand how Kamala and others are ‘Black’ when they are biracial:
They are biracial and may actually identify as a mathematician, professor or President of the United States, but to some police or bureaucrat with some authority, as they are not white they get treated badly. They get to live the ‘Black’ experience. So yes, they are ‘Black’ because white people categorised them as such.
How long has Kamala been Black?
For as long as there has been racist arseholes. This whole fucking conversation is because she’s Black.

2024-07-05 13:51:53 GMT

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Indeed he did say that and he is wrong.

2024-07-05 08:44:04 GMT

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The Republicans have lost all morals and all bad things from them are in them. However, the Democrats have decided to let evil triumph by being good people who stand by and do nothing.
Even now, they could pack the Supreme Court but don’t. Holding to dead norms is a choice. They need to get loud. AOC is a better choice to reseed Dems but right now we should vote Biden.
Compromise can’t work because the right wing just pull more to the right to shift the baseline to the right.
To say AOC isn’t good enough is just racism being loud. Even if not her, like her.

2024-06-30 17:34:22 GMT

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These are European assets Russia bought so there is no concern of a fire sale.
What I’m talking about is title transfer so #Ukraine gets to hold $37bn of UK Gov etc and earns the coupon on it.
Ukraine should get the title and so gets the notional and the interest and can liquidate at need at the market rate.

2024-06-30 09:38:36 GMT

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That’s an interesting thought. I’ll have to mull it over. My main issue with it is that the interest isn’t going to Ukraine.
The choice currently is Ukraine isn’t getting the notional but the interest or the interest and not the notional. They are allowed only one. The debt option frees the cash to be spent but not the interest. That said, technically, Ukraine could invest it for interest but are better off spending it… so you are probably right.
$50bn of infrastructure destruction by Russia leaves ongoing costs as #Ukraine has to buy in power. 🇺🇦

2024-06-27 23:27:16 GMT

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So if you have an Atorvistatin prescription, come visit the UK for free. Have your insurer pay for the flights on collection of medication.
Seriously, Virgin Atlantic could offer ‘statin’ flights with complimentary boxes of statins.
An arbitrage this big means people will be working it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin

2024-06-25 22:09:18 GMT

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It’s very easy to become a millionaire. You just need to be born rich.
If you want the express lane be also white and male. The rest is up to you!

2024-06-21 11:54:11 GMT

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Political posts don’t need to be excused.
• Politics is about resource allocation including facilitating freedoms. If there is £10, you could spend it on flowers, chocolate, beer or anything. This means there is no neutral, just a long list of winners and losers to infinite degrees of how much that matters.
• The idea of not taking about politics is about maintaining the status quo.
• The idea of neutral implies the status quo is normal and everything else is deviant from good.
“Don’t talk about politics here” is just another version of “shut up”. Mentally replace it next time you hear it and determine if it’s appropriate.
I’m a Brit too and I need people to do three things:
1) Shout loudly that we have a great functioning democracy. (* We do, I will explain later)
2) Just because it’s great, doesn’t mean representation couldn’t be vastly improved. It can.
3) We need to go harder on environmental issues. We literally need to save the planet!
Your post satisfies two of these so I welcome it.
*Why our democracy is great:
1) You never need to queue to vote. Ever. Polls are everywhere and easy.
2) Your vote will be counted. It won’t be binned. Everyone’s vote will be counted.
3) Fake votes don’t really exist. Not in any way that matters.
4) Political results will be directly applied to votes in accordance with known rules. No dictator standing up saying you voted for me.
Russia wants you to think your vote doesn’t matter so they can take over our democracy. It counts! Vote! 🗳️
Your voice and vote matters, even if it’s just so I can point to it in the stats and say “millions of people want environmental improvement and clearly we need to improve representation”.

2024-05-16 14:19:48 GMT

“We value your privacy” is such a smart phrase because it’s
a) entirely true
b) implies they will protect it
c) doesn’t mention they will sell it

2024-05-11 20:31:20 GMT

#Finland 🇫🇮 being their usual batshit crazy selves!
I fucking love the Fins!
#Eurovision