andrewducker | Recent Entries

You can find more info on my userinfo page - but this is just here to say that I'm very happy to be friended by anyone that wants to read me. I rarely post friends-only, and that only tends to be about things that mention work, so if I don't friend you back you're not actually missing much...

If you do friend me, this would be a good place to leave a comment introducing yourself, and letting me know how you found me!

I have lots of awesome friends - if you want to make a few more then take a look at here for Dreamwidth, add a few people, and leave comment so people can add you too.

The links posts come from my page at Pinboard and are posted to DW via a web app which I wrote and runs as a daily PowerShell job on Azure. You can grab it to run yourself from here.

A note on correcting people's grammar in the comments.

Official Spoiler Policy.

1. New York gave parents an evening off.: (tags:newyork parents childcare USA )
2. Airlines to be blocked from charging parents extra to sit with their children on flights: (tags:children flights UK regulation )
3. Anthropic's IPO Prospectus Is a Fucking Doozy: (tags:ai business doom )

The number of people I've seen who have taken "The pension triple lock is becoming a double lock" to mean "The state pension is going to reduce in value" is really worrying, from a reading comprehension point of view.

1. The US state replacing power plants with home batteries: (tags:usa infrastructure batteries electricity )

I always find the discussion of "spoilers" a bit frustrating. With people on the one hand with their fingers in their ears asking not to be spoiled and people on the other side saying "But it's been nearly 3,000 years since The Odyssey was written, surely it's beyond the statute of spoiler-dom by now!"

And what gets me about it is the complete lack of empathy that the latter people have for the former. That they don't seem to believe that knowing the chunks of the plot ahead of time could in any way spoil things for someone.

And this video makes it clear where the issue arises. It splits movie-watchers into two groups - the general audience and critics. The general audience is there to be taken on an emotional journey, where they can suspend their disbelief and enjoy an experience. The critics are there to analyse, understand how it's done, and when they feel excitement it's at the mastery of a story well told/designed/visualised/constructed. To the latter you can't spoil a movie by knowing how it's constructed, because the joy comes from seeing how it went together so masterfully.

And obviously those are two extremes, and most people probably enjoy some of both. But I've literally had people from the critic side talk to me patronisingly as if I was being childish because I wanted to be entertained by the story, experience it in the order that it was written, and experience it on a visceral level. Because, apparently, adults aren't interested in experiencing stories, they just want to appreciate how they're constructed.

(I can appreciate construction, it's just very much a secondary mode, and far less important to me than experiencing something.)

So, yes, when I talk about spoilers it's not some term that's plucked out of nowhere. If I know what the plot is going to be then it spoils the experience of the book/comic/movie/TV show. I enjoy it less. And that effect doesn't go away because the movie is 130 years old, and everyone knows that the train doesn't come through the screen and kill the audience.

(Can you tell that I've been carrying this around in my head for a couple of decades?)

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't discuss how awesome Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat is - you just give people a moment's notice, and let them excuse themselves if they're planning to watch it themselves at some point - or decide that actually they're fine to hear about it, because they value the conversation more than the experience. Both approaches, of course, being valid.

Labour just announced they want to end the pensions triple lock, and move it to a double lock - raising pensions each by the highest of inflation and 2.5%, and dropping the wage growth factor.

Personally, I'd take it the other way - drop the inflation/2.5%, and tie it exactly to wage growth. I'd also switch the minimum wage to grow automatically with wage growth. Everyone's income rises together*, giving pensioners a vested interest in wages going up, and and there doesn't have to be a political decision every year over how much minimum wage should be.

At the moment, the pension is 26% of average regular wage**, and the minimum wage is 72% of average regular wage (assuming a 40 hour week). Fix both to that, and job done***.

*Yes, I would smooth over each year, and no I wouldn't let either one drop, but it's rare that it does over a long period, and when it does I'd just wait until the pay rose back over the 0 point overall before raising either again.
**See here for more than you could want to know about wages.
***This is all off the top of my head. Please tell me what epic stupidity I'm committing.

Something is killing the children.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. Burnham's only path to election victory is through reversing Brexit and pledging to rejoin the EU: (tags:uk europe politics labour )
2. The cryptic meaning behind kids' favorite new catchphrase: 'That's AI': (tags:ai language slang )
3. I didn't know that Room On The Broom came in UK and US versions!: (tags:language USA UK viaSwampers children books )
4. Why 'What's Opera, Doc?' Looks Like That: (tags:animation history opera WarnerBrothers )
5. Why is an Israeli-made TV series about counterterrorism so popular in the Arab world?: (tags:israel palestine terrorism tv arab )
6. Tutoring company tells parents to save their money and 'use AI instead': (tags:education ai Australia )
7. Dog Can't Believe Guy She Hooked Up With 10 Years Ago Now Head Of FBI: (tags:fbi dogs sex bestiality satire )
8. What happens if you ask AI to make a video about the meaning of life (and give it $25 to make it): (tags:ai life meaning video )

We have noticed that all children younger than ours are cute little sweeties and all children older than ours are practically grown-ups with their own stock portfolios.

1. What does a Lib Dem "trans activist" look like?: (tags:lgbt libdem transgender rights activism )

1. Brain Imaging Study Reveals ADHD Biotypes: (tags:adhd neuroscience brain )
2. In case you were wondering how Ed Sheeran was responding to recent events: (tags:music Palestine Israel genocide )

Gideon and Sophia's school photos came out well.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

The kids have discovered Pokémon Go and so I've spent about half an hour of today shepherding them around the local area while they squeak excitedly at each other about what they've discovered.

This child has either had a run in with a serial killer or she's had far too much fun with the blackberries she's found.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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Very cool, if true

Recent Entries

Sticky: Welcome

Interesting Links for 02-10-2026

Reading comprehension worries

Interesting Links for 01-10-2026

Critics, the general audience, and spoilers

If I was running the country: Pensions and Minimum Wage edition

Interesting Links for 28-09-2026

Interesting Links for 27-09-2026

Photo cross-post

Interesting Links for 26-09-2026

Interesting Links for 25-09-2026

A curious pattern

Interesting Links for 24-09-2026

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Photo cross-post

Life with two kids: Rise of the pocket monsters

Interesting Links for 19-09-2026

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Interesting Links for 18-09-2026

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