Ian
We live in a funny world: just making the most of it, one day at a time. Tweeter. Liberaler. Quiddler. Un buveur d’encre. A recovering frog after slowly cooking in Musks cauldron for too long.
- What WaPo doesn’t need is more opinion pieces, any hint of syndicated or AI driven content, any thinning of coverage. If you’re losing one third of your writers that’s 1/3 of your content, 1/3 of its value. bsky.app/profile/sand...
- … maybe even more value cut than that if coverage becomes less diverse, less international, more Washington focused, more into the intent of laws and policies and left on the actuality out in the field.
- I wonder if any Russian subs are being cheeky and either watching from a safe distance, or trying to sneak in and see how well they do. bsky.app/profile/ukde...
- It's incredible how a shared language means so much of American radicalisation just slips into UK politics, and thats on top of the deliberate emulation etc that the likes of Reform indulge in. And like with these comment, ... bsky.app/profile/leon...
- ... just the sheer stupendous irony of the Sovereignty brigade not being very sovereign in their attitudes and thinking. Both the Tories and Reform have US Political infection (and the cash) as their achilles heel.
- More of the tube network got mobile coverage recently - some of the subsurface line around Euston for example with more to come. All of the actually underground bits are due to have it completed by the end of this year. tfl.gov.uk/info-for/med...
- ... and tfl have said that we should see some acceleration in switch ons, as the work to ready equipment rooms in stations is needed well ahead of switch on, and is largely done. The tunnels need their leaky cables installed and switched on.
- ... there's a certain irony tho: the earliest section switched on Jubilee line) apparently now uses older kit so cant do some of the modern stuff.
- I was only half listening. Could swear #bbcr4today ran a clip from the 1960s on the signing of the Test Ban Treaty then went on to say it was no more. Not true. The Test Ban Treaty is still v much in place. It's the missile /warhead limitation treaties that have now expired, which is v different
- #bbcr4todqay Over the Madelson vetting I'd expect that between the PMs office and the vetting people in MI5/Cabinet Office that *someone* had the nous to see through both his lies and the vulnerability to Epstein scandal (and thence to blackmail). Where was that nous? If its lacking for Mandelson ..
- ... where else was that emotional intelligence lacking? We heard earlier on the Home Office how it was lacking in commercial nous in negotiating contracts. I dont expect all Ministers to have the time to get it right - but they need to h lev the time to get their people, their office, their ...
- ... their management. Time and again with this government it's naive in its handling of events, of commercials, of people. The calibre is missing.
- Judging by the chairs, this is in the Commons somewhere. Remember the Tories refused to spend £ on the full refurbishment of the building that is so desperately needed. (And she should get a cat) bsky.app/profile/sund...
- The Epstein files arent without their twists, despite often being seen as 'more of the same' even by opponents of Trump et al. Is Starmer just one more awkward twist away from disaster? Maybe whats in the vetting files run counter to what he's said in places bsky.app/profile/the-...
- ... especially where it seems likely he himself didnt see the full vetting output, just a summary, and that one of his office (You Know Who) 'filtered' the result. Somewhere in the Developed Vetting parts of MI5/Cabinet Office there are one or two people who, I'd assume, interviewed Mandelson. ...
- ... and if he lied to them, things get quite serious for him. Especially over the type of stuff, the type of questions, where it unreasonable not to have some recollection of events, especially from someone who Id imagine keeps a diary.
- Roughly every day a fire breaks out somewhere in the Houses of Parliament. So far, fire wardens and systems have got there before there's much to report. How long will the ricdiculous 'penny pinching' of the Commons last? Hint: it's not penny pinching, it's reckless disregard. ...
- ... and it does seem like MPs have decided over liquors etc that the only way to get this done is to allow a serious fire to happen, then blame the Speaker. The HoP need £5-10bn spent on them, for the first time in 150 years.
- Given the opprobrium Palantir suffers from, its interesting alone that its not yet had anything code/date leaks. It seems to be - by its own account - a library of dat alake components combined with initial inject and pipeline feeds, plus configurable analysis and dashboards/reports...
- ... none of that is perhaps new, beyond the contractual expectation to accrete knowledge under one contract (knowledge, not data) into another. And the ever going library of visualisation and analysis tools. It's impressive - commercially as much as technically. So when will IRL wake up?
