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  I thought about it, and here are some serious reasons why #CarolVorderman should hold back in the first #ClactonOnSea by-election and let @CountBinface@mastodon.world have the first go. Yes: 1st by-election. Per ¶40 of the Protocol approved by the House of Commons, #NigelFarage winning the 1st by-election allows the standards commissioner's investigation to be un-suspended, and could result in a *second* by-election should the Committee on Standards then so decide. https://publications.pa...

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  What are the shortest odds that @CountBinface@mastodon.world has ever been given to win an election? Because if they weren't 5/1 before, they are now. William Hill. Down from 9/1 a few hours ago. They might have shortened even further between the time that I write this and when people wake up and read it. (-: #ClactonOnSea #CountBinface

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  I suspect that @ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net will be slightly conflicted about this one, especially as the methodology involved asking 'AI' for the answer, and it came back mostly 'No.' in the body of the piece. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48792218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48791799 https://economist.com/interactive/finance-and-economics/2026/07/02/is-the-economist-always-wrong It's worth noting that the print edition did not use this question head...

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  I thought that #ElonMusk causing 14 millions deaths was yet another piece of social media bullshit, propagated via the usual nonsense of anonymous sourceless screenshots. It isn't. It's a study in next month's #TheLancet, a collaboration between Brazilian & Spanish universities. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01186-9 It does not include other Department of Dodgy life-affecting consequences such as cuts to aviation safety at the FAA, NOAA cuts, cuts at the NIH, and othe...

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  I read the MOU between #Iran and the U.S.A. re the #TrumpWar. The rumours are true. Iran is going to get $300billions, and the U.S.A. is going to ensure that this is legal by removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's status under #USLaw as a foreign terrorist organization. FTO status was assigned in April 2019 by one #DonaldJTrump, and reaffirmed by Trump in February 2025. It's illegal to pay even $1 to a FTO under 18 USC § 2339B. https://law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339B...

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  @cstross@wandering.shop What's confusing is that the original training advertisement (going by the text in the image) does not have this image or anything like it. https://www.azubiyo.de/ausbildung/dornstadt/?job=a5624e52 #azubiyo #Dornstadt #AIs #LLMs #AIslop

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  I really dislike using 'TACO' here. It's a poor show that this has caught on as the name for this. Not bombing a nuclear power plant should not be regarded as 'chickening out'. It is not cowardice. It is refraining from performing an evil act, one that should not have been decided to do in the first place. #TrumpWar #FIFAWorldWar #NuclearWar

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  @arrrg@kolektiva.social I too was concerned for their wellbeing afterwards. And they don't have the option of doing what that lady who left after 20 minutes did. https://mastodon.scot/@JdeBP/115983497912180622 The Daily Record reported a total of 16 tickets sold in Edinburgh and Glasgow as of this morning. ABC reported 50 pre-booked tickets across the whole of Australia for opening day. https://dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/melania-trump-documentary-sells-just-36641836 https://abc....

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  @cstross@wandering.shop Not the specific claim, but there is news coverage claiming that opposition to U.S.A. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is being suppressed on #TikTok. Standard caution about question headlines applies, of course. https://forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/01/26/are-new-owners-censoring-tiktok-top-democrats-influencers-celebrities-raising-concerns/ https://cosmopolitan.com/politics/a70144099/tiktok-ice-censorship/ But let's put it this way: the notion has reach...

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  2026-01-23 is the day of the #MinnesotaGeneralStrike, which (apparently to avoid the barmy stigma that U.S.A. people attach to the word 'strike') they are calling a 'Day of Truth and Freedom'. It has been called in response to the death of #ReneeGood and the general military and paramilitary violence in the U.S.A. over the past few months. https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/ice-protest-faith-union-and-community-leaders-call-for-one-day-economic-blackout The #Minnesota S...

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  @cstross@wandering.shop The laws of physics of this Post-Stross Universe hold. You still talked about a future better than reality turned out to be, where a #FIFAPeacePrize awardee started a war 28 days later. Although the universe taking less than 6 hours to hit below your mark must be something of a record. #Venezuela #USPolitics #PeteHegseth https://mastodon.scot/@JdeBP/115776208271482130

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  @cstross@wandering.shop To save everyone else the work, I've located the original. It's from Adobe Stock, by someone known only as "dantada", and tagged 2006, which is presumably the year when it was taken. https://stock.adobe.com/images/new-york-spring-street-manhattan-508749781/508749781 Amusingly, the stock image is a fair way down the #NewYorkPost article. The generated montage has skipped over some images of already pedestrianized school roads, 14th Street buses, and...

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  @cstross@wandering.shop Quite interesting is @glitzersachen@hachyderm.io's subsequent analysis of how the AI-generated alt text completely misses the crux of the image. #AI

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  @cstross@wandering.shop We call them "garden darts" or "lawn darts" here in the U.K.. Almost 60 years ago there was a U.S.A. children's toy brand named "Javelin Darts", #Hasbro's original name. Other companies got in on the act, too. You can probably guess what's coming from the name. They had sharp metal spikes for noses instead of the soft wide noses that they have to have today. Several thousand children were injured and some died. https://www....