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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.
Photo cross-post
Sep. 11th, 2025 11:47 am
Rainbow over Arthur's Seat
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Photo cross-post
Sep. 10th, 2025 09:54 am
Behold, Vitruvian Ducker!
(Sophia was delighted to discover that she can give Gideon piggy backs
and has now been doing them whenever she can. Which is impressive when
they weigh basically the same.)
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Photo cross-post
Sep. 9th, 2025 02:01 pm
Sophia is having her evening snack while sitting on the window ledge
watching the world go by.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Life with two kids: Old time language
Sep. 9th, 2025 08:19 amYesterday I was having fun with Gideon playing with webcam special effects, and we got to one that looks like old sepia film stock with damage marks on it and judderiness and he delightedly shouted "It's footage!"
Interesting Links for 08-09-2025
Sep. 8th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Greens now leading Labour amongst LGB voters
- (tags:LGBT polls politics UK )
- 2. Palestinian prisoners are being starved, Israel's top court says
- (tags:food palestine israel OhForFucksSake )
- 3. How Britain built some of the world's safest roads (The death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950.)
- (tags:death safety uk driving GoodNews )
Interesting Links for 07-09-2025
Sep. 7th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. This is why we don't read the Golden Age of science fiction any more.
- (tags:scifi history society )
- 2. Ghost sharks grow forehead teeth to help them have sex
- (tags:sharks teeth sex headline )
- 3. The tax-evading Princes Street shops costing Edinburgh taxpayers thousands
- (tags:tax Edinburgh fraud shops OhForFucksSake )
Interesting Links for 06-09-2025
Sep. 6th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Graham Linehan goes on trial over harassment of trans teenager
- (tags:LGBT bigotry transgender crime UK )
- 2. US imposes sanctions on Palestinians who asked for Israel war crimes probe
- (tags:usa israel palestine OhForFucksSake )
- 3. M365 Copilot fails to up productivity in UK government trial
- (tags:UK ai government )
- 4. Weak Forms: Why 'natives' and 'non-natives' sound different when they speak English
- (tags:English language video sounds )
- 5. AI company Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5B to settle lawsuit with authors
- (tags:publishing ai law )
Tags:
- ai,
- bigotry,
- crime,
- english,
- government,
- israel,
- language,
- law,
- lgbt,
- links,
- ohforfuckssake,
- palestine,
- publishing,
- sounds,
- transgender,
- uk,
- usa,
- video
Interesting Links for 04-09-2025
Sep. 4th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Labour's weirdness over flags is deranged, not patriotic
- (tags:Labour nationalism flags weird )
- 2. Why bans on smartphones or social media for teenagers could do more harm than good
- (tags:phones internet children )
- 3. One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants
- (tags:ants reproduction viaPatrickHadfield weird cloning )
- 4. DragonCon ejects AI 'artist', to approval of all
- (tags:art ai conventions )
Tags:
- ai,
- ants,
- art,
- children,
- cloning,
- conventions,
- flags,
- internet,
- labour,
- links,
- nationalism,
- phones,
- reproduction,
- viapatrickhadfield,
- weird
Interesting Links for 03-09-2025
Sep. 3rd, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Blocky Planet — Making Minecraft Spherical
- (tags:Minecraft sphere )
- 2. Apologies: You Have Reached the End of Your Free-Trial Period of America!
- (tags:satire doom USA )
- 3. Edinburgh primary school mobile phone ban set to go ahead later this year
- (tags:school Edinburgh Scotland phones children )
- 4. Under-16s to be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks in England
- (tags:caffeine children England regulation )
- 5. Starmer appoints ex-director of anti trans campaign group as as comms director
- (tags:LGBT Labour bigotry transgender OhForFucksSake )
- 6. Dubstep artist Skrillex could protect against mosquito bites
- (tags:music mosquito funny headline )
Interesting Links for 01-09-2025
Sep. 1st, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Big Tech Companies in the US Have Been Told Not to Apply the EU's Digital Services Act
- (tags:Europe USA socialnetworking regulation )
- 2. How far away is quantum computing from affecting current cryptography?
- (tags:cryptography quantum )
- 3. Why haven't quantum computers factored 21 yet?
- (tags:quantum mathematics )
- 4. What do AI fashion models mean for the future of beauty standards
- (tags:ai fashion beauty )
- 5. Why Labour Looking Into Changing The ECHR Matters
- (tags:Labour rights OhForFucksSake )
- 6. Who will win the Eternal Struggle?
- (tags:war funny )
- 7. The Qweremin (a qwerty theremin)
- (tags:music technology )
Tags:
- ai,
- beauty,
- cryptography,
- europe,
- fashion,
- funny,
- labour,
- links,
- mathematics,
- music,
- ohforfuckssake,
- quantum,
- regulation,
- rights,
- socialnetworking,
- technology,
- usa,
- war
The kids take it in turn doing a variety of things, so that we don't have arguments every single night over who gets to choose teethbrushing things, who gets to be first to get put into pyjamas, who gets to check inside the parcel box when we get home, who gets to choose who gets out of the bath first, etc. This month, Sophia has odd numbered days and Gideon has even numbered days. Except that they swapped yesterday and today so that Gideon could have his birthday.
Except...that a few months ago we used the app Chwazi, where everyone puts their finger on the screen and then it picks someone (to be first player in a game, for instance). And Gideon loved it. So last weekend when I asked who should get out of the bath first he said "We'll play the finger game." - and I asked him if he'd be sad if he didn't win, and he said no, and then he and Sophia played it, and he lost, and I had to wash the hair of a sobbing child, who kept saying "I thought I would win!"
So this weekend, I asked him who was getting out of the bath first, and he said "Finger game!" and I said "Do you remember how sad you were?" and he said "Very sad!" and I said "So you should just choose." and he said "I have a plan, this time the person who loses will go first." And, of course, he won. And so, again, I had to wash the hair of a crying child who thought he'd found a way to beat probability.
All of which is to say that if you want to beat people at games of chance then I recommend 5-year-olds, who are both terrible at understanding it, and completely fail to learn from that.
Except...that a few months ago we used the app Chwazi, where everyone puts their finger on the screen and then it picks someone (to be first player in a game, for instance). And Gideon loved it. So last weekend when I asked who should get out of the bath first he said "We'll play the finger game." - and I asked him if he'd be sad if he didn't win, and he said no, and then he and Sophia played it, and he lost, and I had to wash the hair of a sobbing child, who kept saying "I thought I would win!"
So this weekend, I asked him who was getting out of the bath first, and he said "Finger game!" and I said "Do you remember how sad you were?" and he said "Very sad!" and I said "So you should just choose." and he said "I have a plan, this time the person who loses will go first." And, of course, he won. And so, again, I had to wash the hair of a crying child who thought he'd found a way to beat probability.
All of which is to say that if you want to beat people at games of chance then I recommend 5-year-olds, who are both terrible at understanding it, and completely fail to learn from that.
Interesting Links for 29-08-2025
Aug. 29th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. My Top Five Favorite Techno Songs and Why They're All the Mortal Kombat Theme Song
- (tags:music satire )
- 2. A historian reviews King & Conqueror (neither good nor accurate)
- (tags:history UK TV review )
- 3. Spineless fence-sitter thinks killing children is bad no matter who does it
- (tags:israel palestine satire politics murder children gaza )
Photo cross-post
Aug. 29th, 2025 01:19 am
Little smiley chap wanted to take a photo with me this morning.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Interesting Links for 28-08-2025
Aug. 28th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want to silence him.
- (tags:corruption oil globalwarming windpower propaganda usa )
- 2. Kpop Demon Hunters becomes Netflix's most viewed film ever
- (tags:movies korea music demon netflix )
- 3. Fraudsters are training AIs on a musician and then releasing songs in their name
- (tags:ai fraud music )
- 4. Bluesky now platform of choice for science community
- (tags:science socialmedia )
- 5. Liberty chief blasts Labour over ECHR tinkering
- (tags:rights Europe UK labour OhForFucksSake migration )
- 6. Dreamwidth is forced to block Mississipi
- (tags:dreamwidth mississippi OhForFucksSake )
- 7. Donald Trump state visit: Ed Davey to boycott banquet over Gaza
- (tags:USA Israel UK libdem Palestine gaza )
Tags:
- ai,
- corruption,
- demon,
- dreamwidth,
- europe,
- fraud,
- gaza,
- globalwarming,
- israel,
- korea,
- labour,
- libdem,
- links,
- migration,
- mississippi,
- movies,
- music,
- netflix,
- ohforfuckssake,
- oil,
- palestine,
- propaganda,
- rights,
- science,
- socialmedia,
- uk,
- usa,
- windpower
Interesting Links for 27-08-2025
Aug. 27th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Scotland's birth rate falls to lowest level since 1855
- (tags:scotland babies )
- 2. Local Restaurant Exhausted as Google AI Keeps Telling Customers About Daily Specials That Don't Exist
- (tags:ai google fraud restaurant viaPatrickHadfield )
- 3. Judge sides with trans-inclusive sorority: They can admit trans women if they want
- (tags:transgender women law USA GoodNews )
Interesting Links for 26-08-2025
Aug. 26th, 2025 12:00 pm- 1. Consultation opens on Edinburgh's proposed new tram line
- (tags:edinburgh trams consultation )
- 2. How to justify colonialism, Julius Caesar edition
- (tags:history comic morality )
- 3. Trump is turning into Liz Truss but with more dictatorial behaviour
- (tags:USA economics authoritarianism doom )
- 4. OpenAI Usage Plummets in the Summer, When Students Aren't Cheating on Homework
- (tags:ai students )
- 5. Fixing the voting system brings in more women representatives
- (tags:women politics voting reform )
