@samueljohnson @ottocrat Yes -- I tried to err on the side of skepticism re BBC bias, but how do you get around, say, the fact that QT had Farage on 31 times, but has never, at any time, hosted a single pro-EU MEP? And never mind the audience plants, always called upon, who somehow live in 3 different cities...
@samueljohnson @ottocrat I think if anything both of us are actually being a little generous by saying "failed", when in the majority of cases the accurate word is "refused".
@samueljohnson @ottocrat It really was a perfect storm of inadequacy and abrogation, wasn't it. All the way down the line you can find massive instances of the government simply failing to do, what, frankly, any competent person would do. Remedying even one of those omissions or failures would almost certainly have made the difference.
@ottocrat Some of the takes really stick in my mind. The guy in Wales who voted for Brexit to "put one up Emma Thompson". This is why you don't govern by referendum.
Just got an extremely obnoxious reply-with-immediate-block from @MattFerrel .
Demonstrating some people are childish long past the age of 16.
@EugeneMcParland This doesn't seem sustainable given what Iran is having to do to get around sanctions itself.
It's startling how bad #Apple's usability has got since Steve Jobs passed away. My latest, and favorite yet #WTF:
The phone displays a "missed call" notification on the lock screen, but no other information, reasonably enough, because the phone is locked. I tap the mesage. It gives me an unlock keypad (I'm masked). I type my PIN to unlock it, and it immediately .... wait for it ... CALLS THE CALLER BACK. It doesn't show me the detail and offer to to do it, it just does it. (Naturally, it was a mystery-meat 866 number. I stopped the call, of course).
Imagine anyone thinking that should be the default action on tapping a missed call notice with no visible phone number.
Russia, Ukraine, Twitter, Musk, Nick Cohen
While Twitter is suppressing Substack links, Nick Cohen writes a thorough explanation on why -- the popular over-hasty use of the word notwithstanding -- it's correct to say that Russia is fascist.
https://nickcohen.substack.com/p/seeing-russian-fascism-clearly
Why didn’t I know about this forthcoming film, Crows? The tagline is perfect: nature is watching us.
h/t @timetunnel
Next time someone suggests that Ukraine should trade Crimea for peace, and that "Crimea used to belong to Russia anyway".... point out that Texas is around the same percentage of the US in area as Crimea is of Ukraine, and it "used to belong to Mexico anyway", and ask them if they'd trade it for peace if the US were attacked.
@ct_bergstrom ... and y'know what, I'm going to take that first part back. Whatever your monetization scheme, if you're doing anything right it should be enhanced by having verified users. They should go back to folding it into the cost of doing business.
@ct_bergstrom A one-off fee for a competent verification scheme is reasonable. Perhaps even a small maintenance fee. But coupling it to a wider feature set which includes being in a separate, perceptibly privileged tier is a confusion of purposes which undermines the platform.
@mlwoods @ct_bergstrom For those who remain I suspect their only concern is whether the impersonation concerns in giving it up are worth worrying about.
As far as I can see it's so chaotic that if you're still there you just see what comes day by day and don't try to game it by, y'know, imagining that anything that's said is true or will remain so.
@ct_bergstrom Surely, groweth not both the weed and the flower in the same poop?
@gwfoto@newsie.social @Doreen32128
My representative told me that letters actually do make a difference in where his office puts its emphasis, but they're sensitive to how "organic" it is. If it looks like astroturfing or some well-heeled amplification is taking place they spot that pretty easily and are not so impressed. So definitely write your own letter.
@gwfoto@newsie.social @Doreen32128
The trouble is there's only two kinds of congressperson on a subject like this:
The kind who won't do anything if you mail them because they don't care and/or support him, and
The kind who won't do anything different if you mail because they're already enraged and will do what they can.
We're so polarized you can't tip anyone anymore, no matter what you do.
Consulting SW Engineer, mostly Pacific Northwest these days.
Medical Informatics - Carrier-Grade Network Video Distribution - Real Time Clinical Telemetry
Formerly: Motorola, Tektronix, Intel, HP, Qualcomm, Nintendo; others you're less likely to have heard of.
"Millions for nonsense but not one cent for entropy."
Will code for pie. 🥧