Simon Craven

Same guy, 6 months apart

"We can’t let Labour drag us back into the shrinking orbit of the anti-Trump Eurosphere" (Feb)

"Trump has betrayed Ukraine, making the world immeasurably more dangerous" (today)

cc: @rolandmcs.bsky.social

Interesting because of the claim of the auto transmission being standard. The only one I ever drove much was a five door 827 SLi with a 5 speed manual, my boss’s company car for a couple of years. It was a sweet-sounding thing and went hard with significant torque-steer (less than an Alfa 164 tho)

Absolute unit

Gravestone inscribed: Alistair Stephen Fabian Mitchell. 13-6-1957, 10-2-2019. Barrister of the Middle Temple. My brain, socialist. My heart, anarchist. My eyes, pacifist. My blood, revolutionary. Around the edge, the legend: The only man in British legal history to be convicted of biting a policeman with someone else’s teeth.

A tombstone in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, photographed by Andy Darby.

Note the border inscription.

And you know what? I actually prefer the 915 box over the G50 on a 3.2. Lighter and more characterful

Pencilling it in, just in case my big score comes in tonight’s lottery

Pride and Prejutits

Government style ad in watercolour. Image of a burglar stealing a painting from the wall of a home. Tagline: "It's not theft... if you say you're using it to train your AI algorithm". Body text: "Theft is now legal, so we can boost the economy by eliminating jobs. If that doesn't make any sense, ask a chatbot to explain it to you." HM government logo in the corner.

Did a new one

Crime down in every category in 2024, FBI report says Murder, other violent crimes and motor vehicle thefts all declined in 2024, according to the latest report from the FBI.

For which see: www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-cri...

Good and accurate point IMO. Feels consonant with other observable phenomena like the fear of (imagined) crime

My therapist: you tend to pursue damaged people to try and fix them. Me: you do that too cartoon image with words: therapist, listen here you little shit

🤣☠️

Everyone focuses on the devastation of nuclear war but will no-one understand that the HR issues are also very real?

“Mevada” did me in

Sorry Sam but this isn't a business, lmao

Chat asking GPT-5 to count the number of times the letter “b” appears in “blueberry”

Chat asking GPT-5 to count the number of times the letter “b” appears in “blueberry”

Chat asking GPT-5 to count the number of times the letter “b” appears in “blueberry”

Chat asking GPT-5 to count the number of times the letter “b” appears in “blueberry”

"GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert."

This only matters if you think its purpose is to become Twitter

I often consider that some of our best storytelling in film and tv was produced in an era when the technology was really quite crude and cranky. But at its heart it was human minds connecting with other human minds, and that’s what made it work

Don’t worry about it: if there is any place to give AI hype a kicking, this is it

Yep, that is weird

Always reassuring to have critical aviation safety issues governed by the scientific and engineering principles embedded in “the average layman smell test”

Genuinely, a rubber duck is a better way of doing this. The duck will not only not suggest you kill yourself or provide methods, it won't record or share your conversation and doesn't view you as a future money-making opportunity. You can rely on a rubber duck to keep its beak shut.

The paperback of my Mustang book is available for a mere ten pounds btw shop.keypublishing.com/products/mus...

Just picked it up. Always a proponent for the Allison Mustang being just as good at what it did best, sub 10k, as the Merlin Mustang was in its own high altitude niche.

Never expect anyone to read your book, even if you sent it to them for free. Do all you can to keep yourself in a non-presumptive state that will lead to a feeling of pleasant surprise if a fellow human reads your book. Don’t let people whose job it is to think about the numbers that books sell influence your artistic decisions. If making artistic decisions was their strong point they’d probably not have a job centred around sales figures. DO listen to good, harsh editors. And if they make you cry, go for a long walk, then come back and look at their suggestions with fresh wind-dried eyes. If you are struggling with motivation, train your brain with treats, as you might train a puppy. (“Just one more paragraph without barking and you are permitted to eat this attractive cocktail onion on top of a small wedge of cheddar!”) Get a good chair. Books are worth sacrificing nearly everything for, but the successful functioning of your body is hugely dependent on the health of your spine, which holds everything together, and nothing - not even books - is worth sacrificing that for. Keep notebooks - real, physical notebooks - and never shy away from jotting down the weirdest thought that pops into your head. Prioritise physical notes over digital ones, always. Take your notebook everywhere and treat it like a valuable that is more important than your wallet or phone, because it is. Research can be whatever the fuck you decide it is. If it’s contributing positively to your book, it’s research. Don’t read books that sound, on the surface of things, like they’re going to be a bit like yours. Do read books that sound, on the surface of things, like they’re going to be an entire planet away from yours. Never pay any attention to ‘10 BASIC BUT IMPORTANT RULES FOR BEING AN AUTHOR’ lists on the internet.

No doubt it can hallucinate changed bedsheets and claim that non-existent meals were served.

Speaking as someone whose parents were both teachers in West Yorkshire, and who at the time of broadcast was myself getting towards the end of my school career, I found the whole Beiderbeck canon utterly charming and relatable

Speaking as someone whose parents were both teachers in West Yorkshire, and who at the time of broadcast was myself getting towards the end of my school career, I found the whole Beiderbeck canon utterly charming and relatable

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